


The Idealist

by Kouzai



Category: Naruto
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Real World, Angst, Body Horror, Death, Demons, Developing Friendships, Dreams vs. Reality, F/F, F/M, Fictional Religion & Theology, Gen, Genre Savvy, Horror, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Mental Health Issues, Mind Games, Multi, Original Character(s), Parody, Plot Twists, Plothole Fill, Politics, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Video Game Mechanics, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-12
Updated: 2018-07-22
Packaged: 2019-06-09 09:28:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 71,927
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15264477
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kouzai/pseuds/Kouzai
Summary: "Everything bad or good that has happened to me, can be traced back to the moment I jokingly said yes to something. And everything before that moment doesn't matter anymore."She had nothing to look forward to in her life, and nothing to lose, so when an offer of playing a game in other worlds with them came her way, she accepted without thinking. Now, forced to survive in a time before ninja villages and past that, born as an oddity in appearance and lineage, and cursed to not die or stay dead (as the two who made the deal or DMs and GMs as she half jokingly called them, did not want their favorite 'player' to be removed from the game), she chose to survive.She was forced into a role beyond her expectations, and had to navigate the twisted civilians, yokai and politics of normal ninja clans. She had to be a symbol of optimism while she burned with anger and rage.Much of history, even plot, was purposely altered by these two for the setting of the game, breaking it away from the narrative of Canon, and modified to suit their whims.It was due to this fact and others, that Sakuya couldn't help but wonder if there were other players as well.Book 1





	1. End of Blissful Ignorance

_**Author's Note: This story is part of a very long and multiple fandom approach to things. It will be split between the Real World (our Reality), a realm between the two, and the Other World (Naruto and then other worlds). In the real world and the Other World, the Player has some mental issues including psychotic breaks in the past (hence why she is skeptical of things she sees as views everything as a trick of her mind) and Asperger's Syndrome.**_  
Warning: Dark subject matter, swearing, many perverted things (up to naughty but will be warned), gray or neutral protagonist, gamer, anime, books and tabletop game lingo, paranoid and disturbed character lead, moral quandaries, Madara (yes, that is a warning), Warring States Era insanity, Real World issues, canon divergence, yokai, monsters (human and non), world overhaul, lore overhaul and kicking people in the nuts (mainly Tobirama)

  
_**"Once I dreamt I was a butterfly, a butterfly flitting and fluttering around, happy with myself and doing as I pleased. I didn't know I was myself. Suddenly I woke up and there I was, solid and unmistakably myself. But I didn't know if I was myself who had dreamt I was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming he was me." — Zhuangzi** _

  
"You have got to be fucking kidding me."  
That probably wasn't the best way to react to her sudden surroundings but she was never one for pointless niceties. Part of the reason why she tried to avoid people when she could since they were obsessed with that nonsense but she was getting away from the point.  
To understand her anger, one had to understand what happened right before she ended up in this dark void like realm.  
Previously, she was having quite a lovely dream involving her, Itachi Uchiha, and quite a bit of whipped topping. For some reason cherries were involved too.  
If there was one thing she could pride herself on it was her perverted mind. It easily surpassed Jiraiya's lecherous thoughts and dreams.  
And here she is getting off topic again...  
Just as things were about to get nice and dirty, she wound up in some discounted void area with two people, entities rather, she knew all too fucking well.  
She should since she created them.   
One was easily six and a half feet tall, his tall almost lanky if muscular physique making him seen even taller. The young man was immaculately dressed as always in his shined black dress shoes, fine black jeans, dark purple belt with a golden buckle, a dark gray dress top with a dark purple vest over it, and the faded and battle worn black fedora with the very long tattered dark purple ribbon tied around it rested on top of his head.  
That man had lightly tanned skin, a large very deranged grin filled with teeth made to tear flesh from bone and golden eyes that were nothing less than predatory were half hidden by his chest length fluffy and a bit shaggy dark red hair.  
He was called Royce Davidson and he was one of her most fucked up creations and characters that she ever brought into the world. And when ninety percent of her characters were neutral or of a grey morality, never a true good person or hero, one can imagine the kind of insanity was in her mind, and what he was capable of.  
The second man was about six feet tall, willowy and thin with a slightly feminine look to him. He was dressed in a nice pale blue suit, black and blood red butterflies floating near him. He had fluffy blond hair that ended at around eye level in the front and sides and bottom of the neck in the back. The young man had ice blue eyes and in one of his ears was an earring of either a white feather.  
His name was Gavin Emrys and he was only a bit more sane and stable than Royce Davidson.  
"You took me away from my hot dream with weasel for whatever the hell this is!" Samantha cried out in rage and hate.  
Her words were ignored due to how happy they were.  
"Hello, our dearest Creator! It is such an honor to finally meet you!" Gavin cheerfully said, smiling at her with deep affection and love.  
She looked at how happy her characters were to see her and decided that the dream certainly took on one hell of an existential crisis for her.  
Not to be out done, Royce suddenly hugged her and rested his chin on top of her head. "We wanted to thank you for giving us so much of your devotion and appreciation, love."  
"I don't want any sexual relationships." Sam stated with finality.  
"Itachi would beg to differ. As would many, many others I'm sure," Royce teased the brown haired girl in his arms.  
Call her delusional, but Sam had always preferred fictional characters over real and living people. Certainly helped that most people she met in real life ruined her or betrayed her, leaving the worlds she read, watched or played in to help her survive another day.  
"If you play a few series of games with us, write stories, play some actual games and allow us to show you our heartfelt appreciation for creating us and bringing us into your life, you can romance your beloved weasel and others..."  
"Fucking worth it." She said only a little sarcastically. "Hell yes."

It was a dream after all... So she should be able to indulge herself.  
The two shared an overjoyed look and before she could ask what they were planning in the long run, they brought up an interesting idea.  
"Think of your adventures as a dream or a game," Gavin said as Royce let go of her and she took a few steps away from them both. "No significant time will pass in the real world for right now and you can live out your fantasies how you desire in your dreams. I will be your temporary guide in certain tasks until a more permanent solution is found. I will also be arranging that world to make more sense to your mind and to be far more to your taste."  
Royce grinned darkly. "I'm setting up other areas but I will be there should you desire my presence. Remember to learn cheat codes, life hacks, and don't forget to use warping to your advantage. Don't be surprised to be affected in both lives, dearest." He seemed to look at her with some strange sadness and wistfulness in his golden eyes and it made her worried. "For your own sake, try to keep in mind that just because you believe it's a game, a dream or an illusion and the world reacts to that idea on your end, doesn't mean others have the same thought and belief."  
Suddenly everything became dark and silent and after a few seconds of that she felt a pressure on her face and the sound of purring.

  
_My cat is trying to smother me to death again,_ Sam thought with some twisted humor before removing the offending feline from her face.  
The black and white female was quite vocal with her disapproval with being moved but settled down once she was placed down on another pillow.  
She snorted, far too used to the cat's oddities to care. The other cat was ignoring them both, lost in his own dreams.  
The woman stretched then left her bed, grabbing some comfortable clothes to change out on after taking her shower. As she went over her morning ritual, her mind went over her weird dream.  
In the mirror as she brushed her teeth, she caught a glimpse of two male figures behind her, reaching out and even succeeded in touching her hair. It was just for a second but her eyes met gold and blue before she turned around to see nothing there.  
"And now I'm back to seeing things again. That's fucking great."  
Sam finished her habits without looking back in the mirror. Had she done so, she would have seen her curly dark brown hair slowly become softer and thicker. It acquired a more untamed locks, and where they touched her, patches of snow white hair steadily spread little by little, changing her hair color.  
More than that she would have seen her blue eyes had been replaced by ones so dark a red it resembled pools of blood or dark cherries more than anything normal.  
By the time she finally realized the first physical change in herself, she had more important things to worry about. Or rather what she should be worried about.  
She always had the oddest reactions to things.

  
"I don't know if my mind is trolling me, they actually exist, or reality is dropping it's panties for me by this point. And surprisingly, i don't give a damn," she said as she looked at the brand new desktop computer that was state of the art and started up as she entered the small area that was her personal entertainment room she was renting from her cousin.  
Next to it was some sort of bangle and eye gear that seemed like some portable VR devices taken straight from the .hack// series or something.  
Sam settled into the comfortable and brand new computer chair, put on the bangle and the lightweight head gear which was a little difficult with her glasses. With some hesitation, she removed her glasses and noticed how drastically her eyesight had improved by removing it.  
Everything was a hundred times clearer, brighter and she never had eyesight this good before. Hell, she was a baby, probably a year old if that, when she got her first pair. But now everything seemed better than the much desired 20/20 vision.  
Taking that as either a sign of her mind messing with her senses again or it actually improving, Sam decided to put that concern on the back burner of her mind for the moment and focus on the game that started up as sat down in the chair.  
Everything went dark...

  
Sakuya Uchiha was born on April seventh, a rather unusual night since the full moon was especially bright and beautiful which made the few people engaging in night time flower viewing appreciate the night even more. After twelve hours of labor the little girl was handed to her panting mother who took the child in a shaky grasp with a tired smile as the infant tried to look around the place. She didn't cry or make any sound but instead seemed to take in everything calmly and serenely even if that should be impossible.  
_Well, this is a interesting way to start a game. Never experienced the birthing process before... Fallout 3 didn't count because of all the time skips and so on._  
The new mother was worried at the lack of response so she brought the child to her chest to be fed.  
Much to the newborn's horror, her body resisted the mental commands to stop and proceeded to suck at the breast while her mind was aware of everything.  
A part of her soul was dying from this she was certain.  
After about ten minutes, and the action finally stopped, the screen doors were opened and closed quickly as to not let in any damp air as it was bad for the newborn. Two adults and two young boys entered the room and the newborn tried to focus on their appearances and ignore the growing dread she felt.  
She looked at the only real out of place person first in wonder.   
_Why is there an Uzumaki here?!_  
The man was indeed an Uzumaki, a pureblood at that judging from the feel about him, and he had long dark red hair that reached the middle of his back though some of it was pulled up into a half-hearted ponytail. He had large, dark pupiless eyes that reminded her of Mito for whatever reason.  
A dark suspicion grew in her heart and she thought of the first thing that could answer her questions.

 _ **Status...**_  
When she gave mentally chanting the name a try, she found a semi-transparent display screen appear before her eyes. The world seemed to have stopped entirely the second that screen popped up which wasn't that surprising since the old school games had a system like that.

  
_**Name:  Sakuya Uchiha  
Clans: Uchiha main house (through mother), Uzumaki main family (through father)  
Races:    Human Race, Dormant Warper, Youkai 'Summoner' (pending)  
Sex:       Female  
Age:     Less than an hour  
Jobs:       Kunoichi, Protagonist  
Titles:      Reality Warper, Seer, Protagonist  
Passives:   
– Abnormal Status Absorption  
\- Damage Rejection  
\- Medical Ninjutsu Allergy  
\- Sensor  
\- Weirdness Magnet (More Beneficial)  
\- Protagonist Aura** _

_“Warper, Protagonist and Seer?”  
What the hell?_  
When Sakuya turned her eyes to the title, that area went into a close-up and showed an additional explanation for the Titles.  
_**Warper: One who has the power to make the very fabric of reality bend over and beg for lubricant before things got bad. Like making screens like this or believing some aspects were game like or not.  
Seer: One who can see, sense and interact with demons and spirits. Also being able to see the 'future' paths and know the past and present events enough.**_  
_That voice...  
"Gavin?"_ Sakuya mentally cried out in shock.  
**"Why are you so surprised to hear from me again? It's going to be a temporary thing until a certain person croaks but that won't be for a long while and even then it won't be until you roll a new..."** Gavin chuckled. **"Almost got me there Sakuya-hime."**  
_"What the hell do you two idiots want me to accomplish by giving me such a chuunibyou setting for my lineage alone?"_  
As expected, she didn't get an answer.

Under the current passives column are – Abnormal Status Absorption,  Damage Rejection, Medical Ninjutsu Allergy, and Sensor.

 **"Just pretend it's a game and have fun, little one."**  
Turning her eyes to the passives column, Sakuya had the additional explanation appear.  
_**< Abnormal Status Absorption and Rejection>  
Grants absorption or rejection of poisons, mental attacks and other such abnormal statuses.  
Damage Rejection: Passive that automatically rejects damage to the body, mind or soul. If too much damage is accumulated at once, it will destroy the damaged area and regrew or reform it. If the body is destroyed or 'dies' then it is reset or returned to the world of the living a short time later. Usually within minutes at most.  
Medical Ninjutsu Allergy: Conventional healing medicine and medical ninjutsu counteracts the damage rejection and harms instead of heals. Poison and other deadly things heals or quickens the recovery process.  
Sensor: Able to perceive both living and nonliving entities and objects. Emphasis on detecting states of health (mental, spiritual, physical, emotional), recent dead or dying, spirits and monsters, and moderate to extreme emotions or intentions.**_  
Weirdness Magnet and Protagonist Aura failed to reveal anything, and she knew it was being blocked.  
_What the heck is with all this? It screams ‘last boss’ in a normal game… Or Mary Sue from hell..._  
Sakuya mentally dismissed the screens and the world resumed once more.

  
Her father smiled happily at both the mother and baby and the child turned to the other adult and frowned deeply. Well, as deeply as she could.  
The second man was much older than the Uzumaki or mother, but who knows with Uzumaki ages. He had dark eyes and hair. His hair was shaved in the back and framed a gaunt looking face which was further accentuated by his mouth which naturally curled upwards. He was dressed casually in black pants, black sandals and a dark blue top with a high collar.  
_It can't be... Tajima?!_  
The high collar was too familiar for her liking, but the child moved on to the youngest boy who was about three or four. He looked vaguely like Sasuke Uchiha and that was when she knew she was fucked.  
_Oh, my fucking God... It's Izuna!_  
The boy was fair skinned with black hair hich was spiky in the back and had a blue tint to it. His bangs parted down the centre of his face to frame both sides of it. He wore a dark child's robe with a high collar that would no doubt have the Uchiha clan crest on the back.  
With great reluctance, she turned to the final person. The man, the legend, the god mode of all god mode characters of the series, was a fucking five old kid and allegedly her direct relative.  
_End me now, thanks._  
Madara, because it had to be fucking Madara Uchiha, was a fair skinned boy with spiky, black hair that had a slight blue tint to it just like his younger brother. His hair was chin length and parted to frame the sides of his face. He was wearing a blue long sleeve shirt and white pants.   
"Is the child healthy, Koria?" the man asked looking at the infant who definitely did not look like a normal Uzumaki clan member or a member of his clan. She was a fair bit lighter in skin tone than either clan, had large cunning and intelligent dark red eyes that almost looked like the red of the Sharingan, and wild pure white hair.  
"Yes, father. She is an albino but doesn't seem to have any problems so far with her chakra or anything. She is bigger than either Madara or Izuna were when they were born and is strong," she said truthfully as the little girl in the dark blue blanket was a little different from the others but that was fine.  
Madara didn't take his full attention away from the new born the entire time, something she noticed was unnatural. His gaze was darker than normal in some terrible thought train and she somehow knew that this was not a child just like she was was not a new born. She looked into him then through him, and felt an ungodly amount of power and force along with images of what happened in the original timeline.  
Sakuya just barely resisted the urge to pull up the screen or try to cast libra or anything just on the off chance this was a prank.  
Madara blinked as if suspecting his mask was falling and acted like a normal child. "It's a girl right?" he asked haughtily.   
"Yes, and she'll be your niece, Madara," the eighteen year old Koria answered not paying attention to the tone of her brother as she was too busy with her little bundle of joy.  
Said bundle was too busy staring at one of her favorite characters, former characters, and silently promising to find some way to break him for the insult he was about to say.  
"Whatever! It's a stupid girl and I don't want to take any responsibility for her!" He snapped and put his nose in the air.   
_You fucking bastard! I will make you rue the day you have ever thought of insulting me! I will break your bones, crush your spirit, and violate your mind for this mockery of my being!_  
The younger brother on the other hand looked at the infant curiously. "What's her name?"  Izuna asked as the little girl continued to gurgle small bubbles from her small mouth.  
What no one guessed was those small bubbles were filled with curses and promises to destroy them. Well, just Madara if one wanted to be technical. Maybe her grandfather too at the odd looks she was getting from him counted.  
"Sakuya. That's the name we picked," the Uzumaki said as he walked over to the two and smiled down at them.  
Koria held her baby toward the Uzumaki, and the baby, Sakuya she reminded herself, _I am Sakuya Uchiha_ , and smiled at him. "Isn't she beautiful, Hisato?"  
He nodded happily and Koria handed Sakuya over to Tajima Uchiha when he approached. "She feels like she could be quite powerful and she is perfectly fine." Tajima said as he held his first grandchild in his hands.  
Sakuya wished she had enough motor control to flick him off.  
"Father, can I see Sakuya?" Izuna asked, tugging at his father's robes for emphasis.  
 Tajima leaned down so that his youngest child could see the blinking girl.  
_I have nothing against you Izuna but if you piss me off, I'm adding your name right after Mada-hime's name on my blacklist._  
"Sakuya-hime is so cute!"  
Izuna laughed and poked her cheek so the girl shifted her eyes to him curiously. Or that was what it looked like to other's. Inside she was simply staring at him in a blank way and mentally saying, _"Thank you for that riveting judgement of my appearance."_  
Izuna and his new obsession with cute things was still better than Madara who she wanted to choke to death right now.   
Speaking of Madara...  
Madara looked at Sakuya as her eyes shifted to him and watched as she feebly reached her hand out to him. A small sob exited her lips as she was ignored, by the one other who was not what they seemed. To everyone else she looked like she felt the rejection and suffered from it.  
Madara grimaced at his rude display and genuinely seemed saddened by what he did to her.  
_Please, do not cry anymore. I am sorry!  
That was all it took to change his mind, _ Madara realized painfully a millisecond after his loving thought.  
Sakuya's tears were not due to being rejected but because her new body was no where near strong enough to strangle him to death and she was frustrated from that.  
_I will smother you to death with my own hate and wrath that makes Kurama seem like a chipper person. I will force you to your knees and acknowledge my power you idiotic fool._  
A bond forged itself at that moment and like the sharingan, it would activate, evolve into new stages and come to life when Sakuya and the player itself learned the gravity of the fate she had no control over.   
**"Congratulations on forming a bond with Madara Uchiha! I honestly wasn't expecting that to happen at all,"** Gavin said, his tone proving how shocked he was by that.  
"I wanna hold her," Madara said sharply.  
"Did you not just say you didn't want any responsibility of her?" Koria asked so dryly that her little brother flushed in embarrassment.  
"I changed my mind! She's my apprentice now, even if she's a girl!" Madara insisted as his father gave the newborn to his son. Tajima watched them with an odd fascination as his usually ill-tempered and haughty son seemed to mellow as he got to hold the child by himself who ceased her sobbing.  
_How can my intense liking for you turn into a downward spiral so soon? Whatever, you will know my wrath._

Madara continued to stare at the dark red eyes, looking right back into his own and smiled at her and a certainty gripped his life-course.  
Sakuya mentally frowned as the dark emotions in his eyes cleared up, revealing a strange softness and determination toward something. Something that had to do with her.  
_Don't involve me in whatever you are scheming!_  
Sakuya Uchiha, the daughter of his older sister and Hisato Uzumaki was his in the sense that he would make her belong to him. Failing that, he would teach her, make her stronger than anyone else other than himself of course, and would protect her should the worse happen.  
Sakuya got a bad feeling in her guts, and it wasn't from what she thought was chakra all around her either. She played enough otome games and dating simulations which helped her with analysing people to know what to expect in certain situations, and judging from Madara's sudden change of opinion of her she had triggered some type of flag event and she wanted out of this fucked up family.  
Sakuya always pictured the fact that if Madara let go of his No Homo love and/or rivalry for Hashirama and actually fell in love, deep love and affection and not superficial stuff, he would do anything to protect them. The signs were all there with Izuna and how far he went to keep him alive and once Izuna was dead he snapped completely.  
In other words, Madara had all the makings of a Yandere.  
_"Tell me that wasn't a flag or something?"_ Sakuya begged Gavin.  
**"It was. I'm sorry..."**  
_Thank goodness this is just a game then,_ she thought. Relief flooded her tiny body at the realization and she smiled happily. _I'm going to milk this environment and game for all it's worth regardless if it was real or not!_  
Gavin was silent.

  
"We must let your sister and Hisato rest and bond with their new daughter," Tajima said and put a hand on the middle child's shoulder as he kept looking at the girl.  
Madara was reluctant to let Sakuya go, but managed to when he thought that now that she was alive, she would not be going anywhere anytime soon. Even in the future she wouldn't leave for good and on the off chance she died, Madara would drag her back from whatever afterlife she went to and made sure she stayed safe and with the living. With him.  
Had Sakuya known what was going through the boy's mind, she would have cried and yelled, if at all possible, _"I hate this fucking family."_  
Madara frowned deeply as he handed Sakuya over to his sister who took the newborn gratefully. "You're holding her wrong," he pointed out.  
"No, I'm not," Koria argued back holding the child to her bosom, but the tone of her voice told her brother that she was more than tired.  
Madara grunted in response, the iconic Uchiha sound meaning anything at that moment.  
Sakuya liked to think it was describing how attractive Hashirama was and any other shipping type of nonsense just to mess with him.  
**"You are definitely going to raise hell for everyone."**  
"At least put her in a crib. If you roll on top of her during the night, she'll be as flat as a pancake!" Madara said sourly but wasn't there to hear his older sisters curse when their father grabbed him by the ear and hauled him away.  
Sakuya snickered in her mind at the boy pouting for not getting his own way.  
As the doors closed, Koria and Hisato looked at Sakuya who was nearly falling asleep and both of them gave her a smile laced with love and adoration at the fullest.  
"You have no idea how much we'll always love you and support anything you choose to do," Koria whispered, putting her lips to the small head of the child who let out a small sound of comfort and put her small fist in her mother's long black hair.  
_So, if I went nuts, killed Madara, trolled Tobirama and generally set the world on fire, you would still love and support me? Great to know._  
Koria stared at her child as Hisato helped to place her in the crib after removing her from her mother and couldn't help the tears forming in her eyes at the relief of having a relatively healthy baby girl. She had always feared that her somewhat frail body, an effect of a mission going wrong and being severely poisoned which weakened her shortly before she found out she was pregnant, would make her have a miscarriage or the little girl would be stillborn. Seeing her so healthy, even if the colors were bleached out on her skin and hair, leaving her dark red eyes and pale lips as having more color than normal, was a relief.  
Even her remaining younger brothers, who had always thought of Koria with a sour tone as she had acted as a mother for them when theirs died when Izuna was a year old saw her concern and worry and promised both of them that they would be there for the child no matter what.  
That had accumulated into an argument over who was going to teach the child what, as they thought it was going to be a boy. But it still warmed her heart that they would care for her so much.

The sleepy Sakuya couldn't help but wonder if that was the end of the unwanted introspective monologue her mother was going through and reminded herself she was in Naruto where half the plot was based on flashbacks and competing with each other over who has the worst back story. There will always be another monologue or reveal. Always.  
_I swear, this world runs off of metaphors, monologues, and whose backstory is more fucked up. And there's always a new reveal of intentions or thoughts. Always._  
If Sakuya was honest though, she was curious to see the visual representation of 'Bad Time' in the Naruto universe first hand.

Hisato placed his child in her crib underneath the dark blue blankets and Sakuya gurgled softly before finally falling asleep. The new father turned to Koria and asked if she wanted him to sleep elsewhere that night. She nodded, since the bed needed to be cleaned tomorrow, and Hisato left the main bedroom of their wing and entered the living room to sleep on the couch. Koria on the other hand kept looking at her child with love until she couldn't keep herself awake anymore and fell asleep.

  
Around eight or nine in the morning, the screen door was pulled aside softly as to not wake Koria who had fallen asleep only a few hours ago. Closing it quickly to not let in a draft, Madara walked on the edge of the room to not create any sounds as he walked carefully over to the crib. Peering over, Madara's expression of concentration softened when he saw the sleeping girl on her stomach.  
Madara touched her chubby face with a newfound softness in his gaze as the little girl made no noise. Anxiety crept up on him, so his hands felt her heart to make sure she was alive, and let out a breath of relief when he felt it beat under his fingers.  
_You better not be touching my non-existent breasts, or I will rip you apart,_ Sakuya thought as her consciousness returned to her.  
_She was so small and soft,_ Madara thought, wishing to pick her up and put her face to his.  
But as he stood there, Koria had woken up at once as she heard the doors open, but being a trained kunoichi with a full sharingan this was expected of her. As she listened to her brother's movements, she felt a sleepy smile curve on her lips. She always knew Madara could be a bit of a softy, even if he had made his first kill at a tender age did not change the fact that Sakuya had melted his hard demeanor.  
Madara continued to stroke the sleeping face with gentle caresses and when the dark red eyes stared up at him with such intense and fiery emotions that looked out of place on a small child, his heart sped up in excitement.  
His affection, though unwanted, would spiral into surprising and horrifying ways as the years passed. For right then, it was normal and peaceful.  
When Sakuya started to voice her complaints with a small whimper, Madara was quick to pick the child up as he could justify his action should anyone ask. The boy pressed his cheek to hers while shushing her softly. The baby made a noise when Madara pressed his lips to her forehead.  
_I need acid, a bottle of brain bleach and I would love to go blind now._  
**"Not even we can undo that."**  
"Did that just happen or have you progressed in your genjutsu training, Madara?" Koria asked softly from her bed as she looked at the scene.  
Turning around as quickly as he dared with Sakuya still in his arms, Madara ground his teeth in frustration at the knowing smile Koria was giving him.  
"She's hungry," he said flatly making Koria raise her eyebrow at him.  
"Well, let me take her," she said and sat up of the futon.  
Again, Madara wanted to tell his older sister that, no, she was staying here with him. But, not wanting to be called a softie, he walked carefully over to his sister and kneeled beside her while she took her daughter into her arms and shrugged of her yukata.  
"Have some modesty, Nee-chan!" Madara gagged, turning his pink face away from his older sister who smirked.  
"You're my little brother. We used to take baths together you and me, when you couldn't swim," she taunted as the little girl sucked softly, much to her horror.  
Turning from pink to red, Madara was about to yell but as he had drawn breath, he saw his niece and snapped his mouth shut. "S-Shut up! You're so stupid!"  
"Whatever you say, Maddie. Now be a dear and get Sakuya's one-piece for me," she said, still smirking at her brother who got up with a muttered curse and went for the little closet with the unused baby clothes. Picking out a dark blue one padded with fleece and the Uchiha fan on the back, he put it beside Koria as she was now done feeding her daughter.  
After the burping part and the changing part, Koria held the baby close to her with a soft smile. 

  
_"Why is this happening to me?"_  
**"You accepted the offer, Creator. I'm sorry it started this way."**  
_"I did.... Why the Warring States Era?"_  
**"You said it would be fucking worth it..."**  
Sakuya really hated her rare and intense impulses. She really did.

"Nee-Chan," Madara began. His eyes were focused on Sakuya and were oddly emotional for the  boy. The affection on the surface was only the tip of the iceberg, and even the boy was confused by what was going on. Even his adult mind trapped in this form was lost and confused.  
Koria hummed back, not taking her eyes of Sakuya who was staring at the boy with an intense and intimidating gaze for a newborn.  
"When she grows up, can I be her favorite uncle?" Madara asked.  
_Oh, hell no! Now I'm really going to hang out with Izuna more, just to spite you._  
Koria chuckled and gave her brother a disbelieving look. "That's not really up to me, now is it? You'll have to earn a place in her heart for that," she explained.  
"But what if she comes to love someone more than our family? What if she is taken away from us? What if she is led astray and kidnapped by someone who will break her heart?" Madara asked with a grimace now.  
Sighing, Koria looked as Sakuya had opened her large dark red eyes and stared at her mother as if to ask what was wrong with her uncle now.  
_Now, because there is a goddamned laundry list of things wrong with the man or boy... Whatever the fuck he is._  
"We'll have to wait to see how she turns out, but I highly doubt she would allow herself to be kidnapped or be used in such a way. She will be joining our ranks and I know she will be very strong and fierce enough to escape anything like that," she said to calm her brother.  
"Well, she's my apprentice so I'll make her stronger than anyone else and Izuna will help too," he boasted with a huff.  
Reaching her slender hand out, Koria rubbed her brother's spiky head with a smile as the boy pushed the hand away with a sour pout.  
"Of course, I'm counting on you two to be there for her," she said and at this, even though it was rare, Madara smiled at his sister.  
"I promise, Koria-Nee," he said softly and stroke the infant's cheek. His eyes were filled with far too much knowledge for a small child, and he knew he had to make sure to keep his promise not just to his 'sister' but with people who set him up like this after his original death. The promise in an exchange for a second chance.

  
A few days later, Madara and Izuna were asked to spend some time with Sakuya while Koria and Hisato dealt with talking and setting up plans for their daughter. It wasn't much more than the two boys were already doing since her birth, but still they took great care with their task.  
Madara plopped down on the soft carpet with Sakuya in his arms as he rocked her gently, sending her into a lulled state of mind. 

 _"Can't we skip this part? You can give me a recap!"_  
Gavin's laughter was her answer.

"Sakuya's so pretty even if she looks a little odd," Izuna said sitting opposite of Madara.  
Madara frowned in thought, his child act falling as he considered the reason on why that might be.   
"Koria was adversely affected by the experimental poisons that were used on her a few missions before she became pregnant with Sakuya. While Hisato was able to extract a lot of the poison, and make the remaining traces harmless, it had affected her immune system." Madara stated his belief as he gently stroked her pale cheeks. "It's a miracle she is even alive."  
"Well, she is related to us so of course Sakuya would be stronger and fight for her life," Izuna said proudly with a smirk as Madara returned a similar smirk.  
 "Of course, and she's my apprentice!" Madara said, returning to speech and actions better suiting his apparent age.  
 "Nu-uh!" Izuna interjected quickly.  
Madara sneered at his brother as if this was a challenge over who the child in his arms would prefer between the two of them.  
"Yu-huh! Koria said so!" Madara argued back and made an emphasis by holding the child closer. Sakuya, or at least her body, liked the warmth from him and grabbed some of his shirt in her tiny fists, to her horror, and let out a small sound of terror that could have been thought to be something else entirely. "See! Sakuya doesn't want to leave me for you," Madara said haughtily and looked at the small child who looked passionately up at him.  
The passion was blood lust and she wanted to beat him up but no one asked her for the meaning of the passion.  
Izuna glared hard at him and let it be for now as Koria would get angry if they made her daughter cry. Watching with thin eyes how his older brother lavished their little niece in affection made Izuna smirk at him.  
"You look like a girl treating her with such gentle care like that," he taunted making his older brother snap his attention to him.   
"You're just jealous, now shut up! Sakuya is about to go to sleep," Madara hissed and held the child up so his lips reached her small forehead. He would come up with a fitting insult later on.  
_I would trade the entire Uchiha clan's collective Sharingans for some type of wipe that would cleanse this foul feeling off of me,_ Sakuya thought but once more no one asked and she couldn't answer.  
"Sweet dreams, Sakuya," Madara whispered softly as the infant closed her large red eyes with a small grunt, trying to escape this hell for the realm of dreams.  
"I'm as much of an uncle as you are! You can't hog her like that," Izuna protested quietly as Madara tucked the sleeping girl in the crook of his arm.  
Madara stiffened as he remembered the second part of the deal he made. He could only protect and guide and never be allowed to fall under her spell or gain affections beyond family or friendship or else he would suffer for each transgression. He had no intention of any such thing in the first place and so it was more that he was being told that he couldn't do or have something his preferred way at the time that made him revert back to his old ways.  
After having everything he ever loved taken from him repeatedly and being betrayed, Madara felt he was justified in wanting to protect the last chance he had.  
"I can do whatever I want with her. Sakuya is mine," Madara suddenly said in a voice so serious and filled with many emotions that Izuna blinked his black eyes in confusion at both the tone and the darkness of his voice.  
A faint pain in his dominant hand felt like it was being stabbed once by a kunai but there was no proof of the pain and it vanished.  
"She's not a kitten," Izuna tried to argue, but Madara glared at his brother yet again.  
Madara realized his slip-up and knew it bothered his 'brother', and then the faint sadness that he was taking the place of the 'real'  Madara of this world returned but he pushed that aside. He couldn't dwell on such things. It would hurt him enough to see his brother go through the same hell again, but maybe this child would give a better ending for them both...  
"But she is mine. She will always be as such because I'm the one who," Madara's words faltered as a pink blush rose in his cheeks upon realizing how that could be taken.  
Cocking his head to the side, Izuna thought the sentence over again and again and then smirked broadly upon realizing how it could be taken. "You like Sakuya-hime!" He teased his older brother who grimaced but settled on shushing his brother.  
_I need her alive, trained and healthy so I can truly have my second life,_ Madara mentally countered. _Nothing more, nothing less._  
"Shut up you twit! She just went to sleep!" Madara whispered harshly as Izuna muffled his laughter at the red face of his older brother who turned his attention back to Sakuya. "I can't have you mess up my apprentice at an early age," he reprimanded his brother who suddenly grew testy again.   
"I want to help train her too!" Izuna demanded.  
"Ok, fine. You can help me train her when she becomes older," he said with a single roll of his black eyes. Settling on the matter in the warm living room, Izuna was called by one of the instructors and so left Madara alone with his little niece.  
"You make it really hard for me, Sakuya," Madara murmured quietly and stroke the tuft of white hair on her little head. It really was hard keeping up the childish act for his age since she came around, and Madara knew that was his target to find and train. "I don't really like any girls." He never gave much thought to the female half of the human race in his original life and timeline as anything more than unwanted diversions or being too weak to live. This girl was the complete opposite of weakness and he felt her hidden potential and obvious strength so easily. She could never be like those people. "They're all so stupid and weak, but you'll be different," Madara promised her in a smoldering warm voice as the child kept her eyes closed in sleep and with a pale hand still hanging on to his dark blue shirt.  
Madara felt his heart beat faster at the sight at the little girl, a fact that disturbed the man he truly was greatly, and thought about how he had been the first to check on her when she had screamed in what seemed to be night terrors as impossible as it seemed the first night. Koria, Hisato and his father had been annoyed but he didn't really care. It had just been an instinct to react at her screaming and that only intrigued him on why. Madara had been worried if something had been gone wrong with the rebirthing process. For he wouldn't allow anything that he hadn't approved of personally to happen to her. If he had his way, the crib would be in his room. And the boy decided right then and there that that would be a reality. Only out of security and making sure she was alive so he could get his true powers back, of course.  
Madara liked the smell of her, as disturbing as that was to admit. She smelled like deep forests where monsters and dark things lurk, the scent of fire on a gentle breeze, and underneath it all was the subtle touch of blood. The last was so hidden that it took him by surprise when he smelled it for the first time and when he learned it was a natural scent for her, he was curious.   
It intrigued him.  
Madara liked her dark red eyes and the way he saw bottomless potential in them. The dark red lightly glowing form of the Sharingan was lighter than her brilliant eyes. So dark were they with emotions a newborn is not supposed to be able to feel or process, that even the bloodiest battlefield failed to match the color exactly.  
Her white hair was much like that bastard Tobirama, even her eyes were a bit similar but on her it was more than tolerable. It felt right. Tobirama's eyes were always too shifty and were a dull red, nothing like hers.  
Madara groaned as he realized just how long he had been overanalyzing this strange girl. The man he made the deal with did jokingly call the effect she had on people as the Protagonist's Aura, and as messed up as it sounded, it was accurate to how she affected others.  
Looking around the room, he made sure in a paranoid way that no one would hear his words to his niece, to his cage and warden alike, as it would always be between them in the warmth of the living room and in the arms of a loved one.  
"I fear that I could learn to love you, Sakuya. Love you, as much or even more as my Izuna. That is never a good thing for one of our clan, little one."  
The second those traitorous words passed his lips, sharp pain pierced his heart making it seem like it was being squeezed in a clawed grip, and a faint trail of blood appeared at the corner of his lips and he wiped it away.

  
Sakuya Uchiha had come to the bitter realization that infantile amnesia only works out if you don't actually have the mental capacity to remember things.   
After that little fact, she was investigating the world around her with more curiosity and understanding. The world of game she was 'born' into had her chuunibyou setting as some Uchiha-Uzumaki hybrid during the Warring States Era of the Naruto universe.   
What the actual hell wasn't wrong with that? Sakuya could only hope she wouldn't be overpowered as hell, but with her kin at the heart of the problem and being the niece of Madara Uchiha, the best she could hope for was just to survive day after day.  
And the fact that other than somehow knowing she had a limitless or seemingly limitless amount of chakra at her disposal, she couldn't sense the internal chakra circulatory system at all. In all the fanfictions she read, and all the episodes she watched and manga chapters she read, they went into describing the sensation to some degree. But inside her where the chakra system should be, there was nothing. There was a void, an moving or shifting mass of darkness and shadows that emitted pure raw power but nothing more or less than that.  
If something had happened in utero, like what Sakuya now suspected happened with Rock Lee and possibly Might Duy, Sakuya would be permanently crippled as far as chakra went.   
The dark mass of energy felt like chakra, like she felt in the air and on other people and things, but it was also some new, something ancient and it bothered her.  
As long as it allowed her to do magical ninja bullshit, she didn't care. If she had to suffer the fate of being of such a fucked up lineage, and who knows what else, she is going to use every single jutsu she knew for whatever her freaking chakra natures were and to hell with everyone and everything that tried to control or screw her over.  
_It was just a game after all! Might as well make it My World, My Way!_

Sakuya was glad that she started walking within six months. Naturally, she went to Izuna first, which pissed off Madara for whatever reason and therefore it was hilarious to see. Her first word at seven months was "Mada", an attempt to lower his ire and it seemed to work at the slight blush and proud smile on his face. Then, and only then did she move on to "Izu", "Mama", "Dada", and "Papa for Tajima.  
Sakuya was almost glad that she didn't have any control over her body at this age. She could at least justify the memories of needing an physical adult's or her two uncles help for everything as being due to true helplessness. Sakuya's memories of that time period were about as detailed as if she'd been an actual adult, but the sheer boredom means even her not-quite-physical adult brain and memories sort of lets it all bleed together. Out of the span of the first year of life, Sakuya got a deep need to be in control of everything she could, to never be helpless again, and a fierce love for her parents and family for putting up with her bullshit for so long.  
And a very strong conviction never to have children of her own, but that's not exactly new for her. The universes truly did not need any more sarcastic asshole demon spawn running around. Besides, she was still high-key terrified by the idea of being solely or jointly responsible for the future survival and happiness of another human being.  
The months Sakuya spent with her parents gave her great insight into these two new players in the Naruto world.  
Koria was ill or poisoned or something, with the poison allegedly been rendered virtually harmless. Sakuya didn't seem to suffer anything negative due to that condition of her mother's other than an odd allergic allergies of sorts to traditional medicine and conventional medical ninjutsu that her father used for the clan. Her own damage rejection took care of that pain much to her clan member's shock.   
Actually, poison and anything harmful for normal humans seemed to boost her natural healing speed, which was unnatural and worrisome. Madara was actually the only one who didn't look unphased by anything she really did.  
Koria was a little thin and waiflike, but her eyes were dark and kind and her hair was a straight black curtain around her face. She was delicate in appearance, like a fairy or sprite, but Sakuya knew she was a formidable kunoichi. She was more diplomatic than her brothers, father and husband, and seemed to be in charge of the spying network and public relations positions for the clan. In spite of that, she was always around and had a genuine smile on her face.  
Hisato seemed older than her nineteen years, but as said before, Uzumaki ages were hard to guess at the best of times, but Sakuya could easily place him in his early twenties to the middle of his twenties. He had a wider, more solid build compared to Koria and he still looked otherworldly like her but more like a demon from myth and legends than some fairy or even her own ghostly appearance. Despite the dark appearance of her father, he was a surprisingly gentle, boisterous man who mended the clan members, dealt with seals and took care of the dead of the clan that could be salvaged from the battle field. He was always happy, bright and talkative which was odd to see in the Uchiha clan.  
And then there was Sakuya.  
When she saw her reflection in the mirror for the first time, she noticed how her own appearance outdid her parents and set her apart from the rest of her clan. Hell, she looked like a fucking genderbented Tobirama Senju to a point.  
Sakuya was an albino like Tobirama, but that was where the similarities ended. Her hair wasn't straight like her parents but wild and fluffy like her two uncles even if it was as white as untainted snow. Her eyes were a mix of dark red all about the same hue with only slight changes to it, and seemed even darker than any Sharingan she saw in her present life or her memories of the series. She wasn't as pale as Orochimaru, thank kami for small favors, but she was a bit paler than her Uchiha clan members.  
Seeing her appearance like that forced her to understand that this was real enough to her even if it was a game and that the hell of the Warring States Era was about to hit everything. All she could do was trust in surviving another day and use whatever passives her so-called protagonist status gave her.  
At the end of the day, she had to either reject the status or abuse it for all it's worth and running roughshod over the world.  
"Protagonist..." Sakuya muttered as she shivered at the implications.  
Her right eye twitched at feeling her uncle Madara's chakra signature stop outside the door and he was laughing at something he heard. Her eye twitched again.  
_Once again for the record, I hate this fucking family._  
Deciding to give the logout option a try, Sakuya called up the main menu screen and focused on a small tab in the bottom left.  
The room grew dark and she knew no more.

  
Sam sat up in her computer chair, gasping for breath. She removed the head gear and looked around, noticing that twelve hours had passed exactly and her stomach was being quite vocal for her missing breakfast and lunch again.  
The young woman quickly made some instant ramen to eat and once finished returned to the computer and devices, and stared at it suspiciously.  
"One year in the game and twelve hours passed in the real world..."  
_Meaning for every month in-game, an hour passed here. And I was knocked out entirely during that time._  
She frowned before looking at the computer screen seriously.  
_How is that even possible? It shouldn't be and yet...._  
Sam looked into the small glass of water and nearly dropped it at seeing her reflection.  
She was younger and much healthier, her hair was fully white as snow and her eyes were red as blood. Her skin was paler but somehow healthier than it was before and it was just so fucking weird to see.  
She took a sip of her water then placed it back on a nearby end table.  
"Okay... That was surprising but nothing to get worked up about," Sam said taking a few nice relaxing breaths in and out to calm herself down faster.  
She suddenly felt like something or someone was present in her mental or inner world. It was a place she created for herself to meditate or daydream at long ago to calm herself in her far more unstable youth, but there was never another presence there before.  
And the presence was very angry.  
**"I'm going to kill those two bastards! They did not tell me about this! Being first reborn with all my memories of that so-called canon universe intact and having to be put through childhood and that future again was one thing... Putting up with being dragged into this girl's head and still being connected to the other side is an different thing entirely."**  
"Madara?" Samantha whispered out, awe, fear and slight hope warring for dominance in her tone.  
Hearing one of her favorite characters shift from Japanese, and understanding it, to English was interesting enough. Having it happen in her head was...  
Her voice seemed to have aggravated him since he became to pace in her library, or a manifestation of where she had all of her memories and knowledge, and it hurt her head as he thought and spoke in rage, the silent physical footsteps creating a slight mental echo in his undirected anger.  
"Stop thinking so much and like that. It hurts," she hissed out grabbing her head in her hands.  
For someone who never had migraines before, who never so much as had a major injury or broken bone, to suddenly feel like her head was being slowly split in two was terrible.  
Black spots appeared at the edge of her vision and the world seemed off kilter and lightly spinning before the pressure vanished as if it never was there.  
**"My apologies,"** Madara hesitantly said. **"I did not mean to hurt you..."**  
Her eyes widened at the apology.   
_This shouldn't be possible! How is this happening...?!_  
"I've finally gone completely insane. Or are you real?"  
Madara was silent for a few minutes until he said, **"I am."**  
Two words.  
Two fucking words.  
That was all that was needed to nearly send her into a mental breakdown.  
Somehow, she managed to scrape together enough common sense not to do so, and didn't react much more than smiling happily.

  
She turned back to the computer and started up a blog to record her findings, linking the page to her few friends and typed it out on the Facebook account.  
_**"My name is Samantha... And everything I will reveal here will either be thought of as a hoax, a psychotic breakdown, or to a rare few as the truth. That I will leave up to each individual person, but this is my life and notes on how I came to terms with something most surprising.**_  
She stopped typing to figure out how to start the first actual post.  
_**I had a dream of two characters I had created that I felt were always there with me long before I gave them names or a physical form. They offered to include me in games and would grant me every single wish and desire in a way if I played with them.  
I agreed and that is where the insanity began.  
I saw them in the real world and a new desktop computer setup was placed nearby along with innovative state of the art virtual reality gear and I started to play a game.  
For one year I was in the game world, from birth to my first birthday, and when I logged out exactly twelve hours had passed.   
After that, I noticed other things... My speech clear and voice actually nice and lovely, my appearance changed...  
And the voice in my head belonging to a very messed up individual. An individual by the name of Madara.**_  
Sam stopped again, noticed that it was only nine PM and decided to continue the game for another three months or so.  
There wasn't much else she could do at this point in time until she got responses or Madara stopped sulking enough to speak with her.  
"I forgive you, by the way," Samantha said calmly before she reentered the game.


	2. Critical Fails of the Aspiring Ninja Jesus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chakra Natures shenanigans, critical fails at dice rolls, and family and outsiders realize how abnormal she is.
> 
> Just a normal day for any overpowered person with aspirations of godhood. Right?

"Sakuya-chan? What are you thinking so hard about?"

Sakuya blinked and turned to her father Hisato who smiled down at her with a fond grin. She looked around her and noticed that she was exactly where she logged out at and she refocused on her father.  
"World domination!"  
Her father's dark eyes blinked repeatedly.  
She blinked innocently and gave him a cute smile.  
Hisato picked her up and cuddled her. "My little girl's growing up so fast! Only a year old and already knowing what she wants to do in the future."  
Sakuya giggled at her father's words and actions but was inwardly deadpanning.  
 _"Is he serious?"_  
Gavin's soft, if a little sarcastic and witty, voice echoed in her skull as he answered her question truthfully. **"He is. Hisato is an overprotective and indulgent father, possibly due to how large his extended and immediate family was. As the oldest child of the clan head family, he was raised to be the next clan head. Until..."**  
Sakuya mentally flinched at recalling what she learned from his initial bio. As she learned about people, they were updated but Hisato's few short paragraphs shook her. It wasn't that horrifying, and would never reach even the top twenty betrayals of the series, but the fact it happened to her loving and a bit eccentric father pissed her off.

  
_**Hisato Uzumaki was born twenty three years ago, the middle child of five siblings, the youngest at the age of six right now, and from a very early age was considered a prodigy in sealing, medical ninjutsu, and other fields of study. Outside the common fields of expertise, Hisato excelled in poison making and was sensitive to spirits and youkai. For a time he was trained in those latter abilities, strengthening his sensitivity and could interact with demons and spirits and the dead, but he was forced to stop and return home to learn how to take over the clan head position after his elder brother was killed.  
Between the ages of thirteen and sixteen, Hisato went through his clans training, missions, and dealing with spirits or bad intentions aimed at his clan. When he was seventeen, the young man was betrayed with false evidence and jealousy within his family after several difficult or failed missions. Fed up with the treatment after everything he did for them, Hisato left the clan, taking many artifacts and scrolls with him as a final Fuck You. Including the Shinigami Mask.  
About five years ago Hisato Uzumaki came across Koria Uchiha and one of her brother's closest to her age after a skirmish and healed their wounds. Learning that there was no way he would seek out the Senju after his defection of the allied Uzumaki clan, the two invited him to ally and work with their clan instead.** _

  
"Saku?"  
Sakuya snapped back into the present and hugged her father tightly. "I love you father!"  
Hisato hugged her back. "I love you too, little one."  
Well, her words were muffled and more childish on purpose so as not to freak out people.  
Something blue floated near her father, and Sakuya looked at it seriously.  
On a whim, the very young girl concentrated on the round blue flame with a distinctive tail hovering nearby and thought, "Analyze."  
The world slowed down to a halt as the screen popped up depicting information on it's existence.

  
_**"Hitodama: Human Soul.  
The manifestation of the human soul upon their death.  
In particular, this soul belongs to Norika Uchiha."** _

  
Sakuya blinked and then world resumed it's normal speed. On a reflex, she reached out to it and succeeded in actually touching and cradling the soul of her distant cousin.  
"So you can see them too?" Hisato asked in an odd tone. It was half wistful, half excited with a pinch of sorrow for good measure.  
She nodded her head and let go of the warm soul, watching as it slowly faded away.  
"I will need to let Tajima-sama know that," Hisato muttered before turning to Madara who had been listening in on the conversation out in the hallway. "Can you watch Sakuya for me Madara?"  
Madara emerged from the hallway and reluctantly nodded his head. "I don't mind. She's not that troublesome to deal with after all."  
Sakuya narrowed her eyes at the boy. "I will get you back for this!"  
Hisato handed her to the raven haired boy, and noticed the fleeting but fond smile on Madara's face. He knew that she would be safe with him and took his leave.  
"How have you been Sakuya-hime?" Madara asked, a teasing element to his tone.  
The two had long come to the same conclusion about each other: neither child was truly what they seemed.   
Madara was far too intelligent and insightful for a child of six but hid his mature or adult like decisions and thoughts behind a childish or his approximate age group act.  
And she was speaking, thinking and walking near normally for an adult at one year old. That alone proved Sakuya Uchiha was not going to be anything less than a prodigy. The fact she was smart enough not to talk properly around most people and broke up her words into baby talk at times hinted at her understanding her current position.  
"I'm doing fairly well Mada-hime," Sakuya replied with a small angelic smile.  
That was another thing she learned about herself. Most of her natural smiles and grins were murderous serial killer expressions, rapefaces or just plain evil. The more polite, forced or faked versions were angelic and bewitching to behold.  
Clearly, something went wrong with whoever designed her character.   
Madara twitched at her nickname for him. "I'm not a girl, Sakuya-hime! Stop calling me a princess."  
Sakuya raised an eyebrow, another achievement for her in general. "But my uncle is so pretty!"  
Madara rolled his eyes. "Boys can't be pretty!"  
"You have never seen a Trap or an effeminate male before then," Sakuya countered, once again indirectly hinting at possessing knowledge that one shouldn't know.  
"One more remark like that and I'll drop you," Madara teased only to be glared at painfully.  
"Drop me and they will never find your body."  
Madara blinked then grinned down at her in amusement. "You would murder me then?"  
"It's only murder if they find the body. Otherwise it's just a missing person," Sakuya explained seriously and it made the young boy actually laugh.  
 **"Relationship change!"** Gavin announced cheerfully as the screen of Madara's status and bio appeared near the boy's head.  
Sakuya skipped over most of the information, especially since it was blocked or hidden where it counted, and moved straight to his relationship area. She immediately went to the latest addition to Madara's feeling summary toward her.  
 **"Madara has taken her amusing words to heart and would consider them in the future."**  
 _Why do I feel like I set up a bad end route for my own self somehow?_  
After that, the next three months were rather ordinary.  
Sakuya was walking around and talking after she stopped caring about her extended family's reactions to that little show. Her mother and grandfather were often talking together as of late, no doubt about her potential and being able to adapt and learn so quickly. She had the feeling, chakra lessons were in her near future but she was way ahead of them there.   
Or at least she was figuring out how to feel and control the dark mass of shadows or whatever it was that was her version of energy and chakra.  
Sakuya had the feeling that if a Hyuuga saw her non-existent chakra system and stared into the abyss, going mad or blind temporary would be the least of their issues.  
Her father had been spending more time with her, giving her simple books on folklore and his own studies to pass the time.  
Izuna was often around then as well, and of course Madara ruined everything by being nearby.  
She was really starting to become worried that Madara was up to something. Which he always was, but that this ellusive something involved her and therefore she both wanted to know and didn't.  
It was never a good thing to have the attention or gain the affection of a Pureblood Uchiha after all.  
Sakuya logged out of the game.

  
Samantha stretched after removing the head gear and logging off the computer after making sure the game saved.  
 **"You're a NEET,"** Madara said startling the young woman.  
Once she calmed down enough and went off to get some water and light snacks before heading to bed, Sam addressed the man.  
"I see you've been busy going through terminology in my memories," she stated calmly. "But yes, I am technically a NEET. There are good reasons for that, and I am currently working on getting my life in order. I also avoid people in general and have mild to moderate social anxiety due to my upbringing."  
Madara was silent for some time, lost in his own thoughts and she was on the verge of sleeping when he finally spoke up again.  
 **"What happened to make you like this?"**  
"That would be about twenty odd years of lenghty explanations, fucked up family and society relations, abuse from the world and not giving a damn... It's a bit much for new allies and potential friends."  
Sam ignored his derisive mental snort.  
"Wouldn't it be better just to raid my memory for answers?" Sam offered instead.  
 **"It would be faster, but if I want to have a good relationship with you which is preferable since we will be together for the foreseeable future, we would need to trust and rely on each other. Assaulting your mind for answers will do nothing but hurt both of us both in the short and long term."**  
While the answer was cold and rather callous, something about it gave her pause. Maybe it was the fact that one of her favorite characters of that universe was taking her concerns into account...  
Or maybe she finally lost her mind like she feared.  
"I appreciate that Madara. I do want to get to the bottom of things and as much as I find your presence a balm to my poor soul, having you in my head to begin with is threatening my sanity."  
 **"Not that you have much of that,"** Madara said in a low, cautious tone.  
He must have seen some of the times she blacked out or lost control in the past.  
 **"We will discuss this in the morning. For now sleep. I will wake you when you get adequate rest. Then we can see what other benefits your change has provided."**  
"Training from hell?" Sam asked cautiously despite knowing the answer before feeling what she could only consider as Madara's enjoyment and amusement before she was knocked out.

  
_This is not my bed._  
That, was the first thought that went through her head as she awoke from her unconscious state of being knocked out then eased into slumber.  
 _I'm going to kill Madara for this. Somehow._  
The bed in question was fine. The bed was soft, warm, heck it even smelled nice, some type of cherries mixed with old forests and fresh linen; but it wasn't her bed. She didn't even try to open her eyes as she tried to process the situation. She laid in bed and felt around her for any sense of similarity. The reason she knew it wasn't het bed is because her bed is a queen size bed, in which her adult body fit perfectly in. The fact that she could touch the wall with her foot and her hand dangled down the other side means it's not her bed.  
"I swear to everything if I open my eyes and see I'm in some locked basement I'm going to stab a bitch," she cursed before taking a deep breath and fluttered her eyes open.  
Her sharp and improved sight, which was adjusting to the sunlight coming in from a window, was greeted by a wooden ceiling decorated with paintings and drawings of spirals, fans and spirits.   
She took in another deep breath and slowly traveled her eyes around the room. She found out that the bed was pushed towards the wall, the bottom part of the bed stopped right underneath the bottom of a overly large window.  
The half of the window closest to her was shaded by the dark blue curtain that draped it, while the other half of the curtain was tied back letting in the sunlight. She turned her head and noticed a table on the floor in the middle of the room not too far away, as well as the table to her left, beside the bed that held a lamp and sundial clock. It was eight o'clock in the morning according to the antique clock.   
Beside the bedside table there was an empty space, then a big drawer with five handles in the middle. After the drawer there was a dip in the wall to form a nook around another window. There was a comfy sofa surrounding the nook, most likely a tiny reading nook.  
The rooms square shape turned and on the wall there was a desk and then space for another five layered drawers. There was a door next which she presumed led to the rest of the house.  
As the room turned again to the final wall, there were two rooms one which had no door, which she presumed was a walk in closet, then the final door must lead to a bathroom or connects to another room. In the middle of the two doors was a full length mirror that could probably be about five feet in height and two or three in length. As much as the room was nice and spacious, again it wasn't hers.  
And that wasn't all to panic over, not that the Uzumaki spirals and Uchiha fans everywhere weren't enough to freak her the fuck out.  
She had these red flag like feelings that something else wasn't right.  
She swung her legs to the side of the bed and jumped out of it, having to balance herself for a moment as she landed later than predicted.  
As she made her way to the mirror, that foreboding feeling came strong along with the fluttering of those anxious feelings. Walking across the room, all the furniture was bigger than she expected.  
The mirror reflected back a character she knew after spending hours playing as her, except there was a bit of a timeskip. Gavin must have given into her desire to skip the potty training, and normal baby issues entirely and moved on to toddler age.  
The child of about two years old with vibrant, very observing and mischievous dark red eyes stared back. She stood with a large body for her age leaning forwards, tiny hands pressed against the mirror. She had short pure white hair that reached just passed her shoulders, with messy bangs and was in a natural wild manner. The child was undeniably cute. She wore her dark blue light sleepwear that reached her ankles, exposing her little toes that wiggled on the dark rugs experimentally. As she backed away from the mirror, so did the child in the mirror.  
"Status," She whispered and saw her information and status screen pop up while the world ground to a halt.  
She saw that her name was Sakuya and that she was exactly three years old.  
Sakuya blinked repeatedly before shrugging it off.  
"So, the game was that good I am having dreams of it now? That's great."  
 **"Are you seriously trying to sugar-coat this situation?"** Gavin asked carefully.  
Sakuya paused at hearing the voice and frowned. "How did you expect me to react?"  
Gavin seemed amused by her actions.  
She ignored him and went about gathering clothes and heading to the bathroom where she quickly took a shower. By the time she was finished and clothed, she had caught the scent of breakfast cooking and headed that way.  
She greeted Izuna with a quick hug in passing, waving at her father who grinned back and may or may not have used Madara's back as a trampoline to get into the main houses kitchen before he did.   
"Mommy did you see how nice I look today? I took a bath all by myself!" Sakuya said in a proud, child-like tone.   
"Yes I did, you look very nice and cute," Koria said with a soft smile.  
Sakuya smiled back, though far more evilly, as she went to wash her hands.  
"What are you doing?" Sakuya asked while tilting her head in a curious manner.  
"I'm going to make breakfast and lunch for you since will be tested for your chakra nature today and then move on to basic jutsu."  
 _"I take it I bypassed all the boring chakra exercises or they just ignored it..."_  
 **"A bit of both. You don't need that nonsense anyway given what your so-called chakra is like,"** Gavin reassured.  
"Mommy can I help?" She smiled down at her with a raised brow.  
Sakuya held her breath in fear that Koria had caught onto her, but let it go when she crouched down.  
"Sure, let's make everyone a nice breakfast."   
As time went by, they finally finished making breakfast and some light lunches for later.  
"Okay, we're pretty much done now Sakuya. Why don't you help set the table?"   
Sakuya nodded as Koria held out some plates so she could set them on the table.  
She went inside the nearby dining room and placed the plates in front of each chair. The girl then went back and got the cups, then the silver ware and napkins, making sure not to make much noise. When Sakuya finished, she turned around to go back into the kitchen to see if she had other things to do when she saw Koria standing at the door way. Her mother looked at the table and then at her, and Sakuya had a terrible feeling as she looked back towards the table. Everything was placed down correctly and evenly spaced apart at the correct distance.  
 _Fuck you OCD! Why must you pop up at the oddest times?!_  
"My little girl is growing up so fast! You will grow up to be a strong, smart woman!" Koria said while coming close enough to pick her up.   
"I want to be just like you! And Daddy, and Grandpa and uncle Izu and uncle Mada too!" Sakuya said to suck up to everyone nearby.  
Koria laughed and twirled with the little girl in her arms.  
"And why are my two precious people so cheerful?" Hisato asked as he saw the two of playing around so early.  
"Dear! Listen to this, Sakuya said she wants to be like us!" Koria paused and looked at her brothers and father who sat down at the table and was amused at the show. "Of course she wants to take after you guys as well."  
Tajima actually smirked after the teasing addition.  
Izuna chuckled.  
Madara huffed. "Of course she wants to take after me. Sakuya-hime is my apprentice after all!"  
She couldn't help but laugh darkly at finally being able to show off soon. Very soon.  
Koria and Hisato brought out the breakfast and placed it down before each person before sitting down with their own share. Madara and Izuna were already scarfing down the food the second it was before them. Tajima was shaking his head at his sons and was taking his time with the rice and small fish.  
Sakuya watched his motions and her parents own gestures in cooking before mimicking it exactly. She was careful with her movements and after a slip-up at first, got used to the chopsticks and ate politely.  
The rest of breakfast went on without much trouble until Tajima decided to point out how she was being quite polite and eating properly.  
"Koria, have you been thinking about teaching Sakuya some etiquette?" Tajima suggested, and Koria smiled and nodded in thought.   
Madara and Izuna looked at their niece with great sympathy and that distrubed her.  
"Yes, father. I will be starting her training after today. In addition to etiquette, I will be teaching her what we discussed before. Hisato will be teaching her what he can regarding their shared sensing, along with what medical ninjutsu, seal work and poison making she can learn and master."  
Grandfather nodded at her response and returned to eating.  
Hisato looked over to her with a secretive smile, implying he knew something Sakuya didn't. "You know Sakuya, mommy's training might me harder than ninja training or any other lesson."   
"Really?" Sakuya asked unbelievingly.  
He nodded and dropped the subject, and Sakuya assumed it was to let her learn that on her own. Hisato must have seen the disbelief and incredulous expression on face because he soon it explained to her.  
"Your mother is well known for her lessons in etiquette. Her lessons are far more in-depth than the lessons I was forced through," He finished with a chuckle.  
In other words, Sakuya was fucked.

  
A short time later, Sakuya had found herself outside the main house and in a mostly private training ground along with her two uncles.  
Izuna was grinning playfully at her, several pieces of chakra nature revealing paper in his hands.  
"There's no need to worry Sakuya-hime! It's just confirming what we already know," Izuna reassured her and that made her confused.  
Somehow she knew Gavin was smiling and a smiling Game Master is a highly dangerous and unstable being. **"The Uchiha clan always has the fire nature by default. The Uzumaki clan usually has wind and water nature by default."**  
 _"I'm sensing a but here..."_  
Gavin laughed manically in her head before wandering off.  
Madara was, well Madara, and had to be an ass. And tsundere ass at that.  
"Let's just get this over with so we can move on to teaching you jutsu."  
 _Yeah, fuck you too._  
Izuna showed her how to use the paper, channelling the chakra needed for it and revealing his own natures. Once finished he handed a piece to Sakuya, and motioned for her to try it.  
Sakuya looked down at the sheet of square paper and channelled just a little of her dark mass of energy or chakra she supposed to it and got no reaction at all.  
This lack of change continued for five minutes straight until the paper seemed to be done with everything and turned into a full on porn magazine.  
An stunned silence filled the area as no one had any idea on what the hell that meant.  
Sakuya flipped open the contents of the magazine, a dark blush and bloody nose signs of her own perverted nature showing the images were very real.  
 _"I don't know if you and the world rolled a natural 20 or you both rolled me a 1, but I like this outcome. I like it a lot,"_ she mentally said to Gavin.  
Gavin seemed to be surprised by that and was chuckling.  
"Apparently, I have the elusive and rare sexy chakra nature," Sakuya said with great pride.  
Madara did not take having that nature well since he took the magazine out of her hands, rolled it up, and hit her on the head.   
"Stop messing around Sakuya-hime! That's not a proper nature," Madara scolded her.  
"Oh, really?" Quickly she formed four very specific handseals rapidly before saying, "Sexy Harem Technique! Embrace Paradise!"  
 **"You played Mass Effect far too much. Embrace Eternity anyone?"** Gavin teased.  
Sakuya twitched a little before focusing on the dozen of shadow clones of her as a teenager and young adult hugged up against the two older boys. Each clone of the Harem Technique was wearing skimpy clothing that barely held and covered their ample assets, and had snow white cat ears on their heads with a cat tail that moved and flicked. Claws and fangs completed sensual cat girl appearance.  
Izuna was having the most obvious nosebleed while Madara was having a small reaction at best. In fact the older boy didn't even react to it but instead focused on his smug little niece.  
 **"Congratulations on creating the harem technique nearly eight or so decades before it's original creation! What are you going to do next?!"** Gavin mocked before snickering at the insanity. **"And you totally just stole the Shadow Clone and Multiple Shadow Clones creation from Tobirama as well!"**  
The clones vanished in puffs of smoke and Sakuya grinned in amusement at her uncles.  
"You didn't react at all when you saw my sexy cat girl clones, Madara!" Sakuya exclaimed with great shock on her face. "Maybe you admire and love my humble self or maybe you were thinking of my male version." She covered her mouth in a show for amazement before pointing at him. "Gaydara!"  
Izuna snickered at the shock and outrage on his brother's face. "Sakuya-hime has seen fit to give you a new nickname, nii-chan!"  
Madara twitched at that. _'This crazy bitch,'_ he thought angrily.  
Sakuya kissed her oldest uncle on the cheeks and then on lips. "No matter what, I will always love you Madara."  
Madara was frozen, stunned by what she did and had a faint blush on his cheeks at being caught off guard.

Izuna was laughing until he was given the same treatment. The poor boy sputtered uncontrollably and blushed darkly.  
Sakuya ran away giggling at their reaction.  
Izuna looked at his older brother once his own reaction had died down enough for him to speak properly and showed how affected he was from the troll.   
"Gaydara nii-chan still isn't showing a reaction!"   
Madara glared at him before taking off after Sakuya.

  
Sakuya was laughing her lily white ass off deep in the woods. Only once she calmed down enough to focus did she take notice of how the world had changed a barely noticeable degree. Over everything, there was a very faint red tint to the world and the girl frowned deeply as the realizing of what that meant struck her.  
Pulling up her status screen she noticed that she had acquired the mother fucking Sharingan and sexy chakra nature.  
The Sharingan information was revealed as such:  
 _ **Sharingan: The one bloodline limit that has more evolutions than the fucking Eevee. Usually acquired from extreme, often negative, emotions, this Sharingan was activated by a special little snowflake and as such is even more special. Activated by the feeling of mischief, joy, and satisfaction at messing with people, or otherwise trolling them.**_  
She focused on deactivating the dojutsu or the chakra to her eyes and watched as the world became just a little less sharp and detailed but the red tint was gone. She reactivated it by imaging the chakra flowing or concentrating on her eyes and then deactivated it once more.  
"Now I know you two are fucking with me," Sakuya uttered before moving to the second upgrade.  
 _ **Sexy Nature: Provides passive bonuses to actions, trades, fights, damage, conversations and generally anything when it comes to the opposite sex. Can be increased to affect same gender or sex as well. Sexy or perverted moves and actions are super effective in general. Can be used actively.**_

_First social skill boost acquired... And it's perverted. Lovely._  
Sakuya facepalmed at reading the conversation or social skill summary. The face palming action grew when she realized where she had run off too...  
"Of course I would wind up where Hashirama and Madara used to meet up as children. Why wouldn't I?" Sakuya uttered sarcastically.  
She shook her head at her own situation and decided to see if she had other natures.  
"This will either be the best idea ever or my stupidest," Sakuya began before forming the handseals of the chidori move and watching the lighting form in both her hands, the familiar but unfamiliar sound of a thousand birds chirping echoing all around her. She cancelled the technique and watched her hands reject the damage.  
"Yeah, that was stupid. May Kakashi Hatake's ancestors be blessed in exchange for this," Sakuya said solemnly and with great seriousness.  
Then she cheered up and went a complete 180 in attitude.  
"YOLO!" She cried out as she went overboard with her experimentation.  
After using the Great Fireball Technique out over the water, and seeing the blue flames instead of the red version, Sakuya went over other basic jutsu for the elements before just having fun with it.  
"The five basic chakra natures are mine to control," Sakuya stated with a happy grin. "I'm on my way to becoming the Avatar and Ninja Jesus!"

Madara had followed after the hellion, planning on giving her a piece of his mind when he realized where she stopped at. He hid himself behind some bushes and trees and cursed at the chance of this.  
 _Did she know of this location? Or was this just awful luck?_  
He glanced away from the area where Hashirama and himself used to see each other as children in another life and world back to his niece and realized that she had awakened the Sharingan somehow.  
Madara blinked and the Sharingan was deactivated and he wondered if she had acquired it at all. That quickly was confirmed or rather put to the back of his mind as he watched her perform the oddest jutsu that the one known as Kakashi Hatake used. It sounded like a thousand birds chirping and crackled with lightning.  
After that, Sakuya created a Great Fireball Technique whose heat caused some of the water underneath it to be turned to steam. It's size and mere heat were impressive and for a first attempt it was extraordinary.  
But it was too fast, and too hot and it would damage the forest long before it went out.  
Sakuya must have realized that as well since she cursed heavily and somehow controlled the nearby water to block and contain the raging fire ball.  
Madara noticed she had made some smooth and stable, if quick movements, with her arms and hands and wondered if she was using that to control the distant water.  
The fireball was destroyed in the water prison, only steam and some fading smoke being the last traces of it's existence.  
He watched as she made a thick wall of Earth in front of her after a few handseals before thrusting her hand out at it and wind blasted it apart.  
 _Sakuya can access all five basic chakra natures?!_  
As strange and wrong as it sounded, Madara felt a little envious of her talents. The adult aspect of him was envious at least.  
Seeing her use such chakra heavy jutsu without so much as sweat forming on her brow or breathing heavy at doing it, especially for her age, was unnatural.  
At the same time, he couldn't hold it against her. There was something about Sakuya that made it seem like this display of power was normal, a given, and to think otherwise was the unnatural part. She seemed to draw people to her, both for good or ill, and he himself was not immune to it.  
Madara looked away slightly as his faint blush threatened to reappear as he remembered what she did, and when he looked back she had somehow created a giant water dragon that she was playing around by using a single oddly shaped ball of condensed fire that she held close to her chest.  
Sakuya wasn't moving as much as she was directing the water underneath her feat to move her around the lake, dodging swipes from the water made dragon as it tried to stop her from reaching the large wooden poles that were on the side of the lake she started on. Madara noticed there were another set of wooden poles on the far shore and he focused on her even more.  
"Sakuya can use wood nature?!" Madara whispered to himself in awe and surprise.  
 _How is that possible?_  
Madara's line of thinking grounded to a halt as he watched her create several shadow clones and tossed the ball between them as she used the water to speed to the end goal. The dragon roared out in outrage and snapped at a clone, tearing it in two and making it poof away.   
"I'm open!" Sakuya yelled out to the clone who was holding the ball.  
The clone nodded her head and threw it in her direction mere seconds before it was destroyed by the annoyed dragon. Sakuya caught it and the second she reached the posts tossed it on the ground where it vanished.  
She then did a strange little dance that Madara had no words for.  
The dragon screeched out and sent a wave of water at her which she blocked with a tall and round circle wall of earth and bushes shielding her from the blow. Once she lowered it, the water dragon did it's best to give her the finger and vanished.  
Madara was actually speechless by all this and the remaining clones vanished as well. He didn't think anyone or anything would surprise or intrigue him more after seeing what she was capable of. Seeing how far she would go would be interesting to behold.  
He wanted to be there for her the entire step of the way.

  
"That was rather surprising. I have never seen anything like that before, especially from someone of your age. I'm actually impressed, and that is very hard to do."  
Madara stiffened at hearing that voice, much younger than it once was, but it still filled him with an uncontrollable hate and rage. His head turned to face the speaker so quickly he thought it would give him whiplash and he almost felt his own Sharingan awaken once more by the pure negative emotions he had for both of them.  
"Tobirama and Hashirama? What are they doing here...?" Madara spat out, disgust and slight horror at seeing them so suddenly.  
The horror grew as the man in a child's body finally realized that Tobirama had genuinely complimented someone. He noticed the small smile on the filthy Senju's face and Madara felt dread at what that could mean.  
Hashirama was openly gawking at his brother sincerely complimenting anyone. His jaw was dropped and his eyes were damn near bulging at the sight.  
Madara shook his head at their appearances and turned to his niece who was smiling politely. Behind the nefarious bright smile that most would take as friendly and the supposedly soft look in her gaze, he caught a glimpse of the cold and calculating side of her as she watched them approach her.  
Oddly enough, that reaction despite being nowhere near childish nor belonging to one of her tender age reassured him.   
 _At least she isn't fooled by them._  
"I am honored that you would compliment one such as me," Sakuya addressed them and the compliment with a strange humbleness and formality that never would fit her normally. "I was merely trying to see what I could do after spotting others do similar things in my endless journey."  
Madara had to stop himself from laughing at how serious and formal she was being right then. It wouldn't do to give away his location now, even if Sakuya had briefly glanced his way once or twice during the entire scene.  
"That's really incredible!" Hashirama said after he stopped being surprised and turned to the girl with a wide and cheerful grin. "I never thought I would see someone being able to use all five chakra natures so instinctively, let alone seeing someone else being able to manipulate plants li-"  
Tobirama coughed and gave his older brother a warning glare. The older brother pouted and seemed to sink down into himself.  
Sakuya giggled at the sight, smirking mischievously at the older boy. Madara took that as her knowing their natures and personalities somehow.  
Tobirama refocused on her after hearing her laughter and noticed how she resumed the cautious and polite manner.  
"What is your name?" Tobirama asked after a moment's consideration.  
"That's a rather dangerous question," Sakuya pointed out with a sly smirk. "For all you know, I could be a member or part time ally for any number of groups, especially ones that oppose..." She stopped herself and shook her head. "Tell me your names first. It is only polite to introduce yourself before asking after the name of another after all."  
Tobirama nodded his head in acceptance, a smirk on his face. He laid a hand over his heart and said, "My name is Tobirama."  
He then pointed half-heartedly at the other boy. "This idiot is my elder brother Hashirama."  
Said idiot pouted and crossed his arms. "That wasn't very nice, little brother!"  
Madara facepalmed at the familiar scene.  
"Sakuya."  
The two siblings looked at the younger girl who offered them her hand with some curiosity.  
The girl shrugged. "My name is Sakuya." She rolled her dark red eyes as a show of her feelings toward her name. "I was named after a rumored goddess or spirit known as Konohanasakuya-hime. Said spirit was the embodiment of delicate earthly life, was often considered an avatar of human life and her most prominent symbol are cherry blossoms which suits that impression well. Konohana Sakuya was also the goddess of volcanos."  
Tobirama took her hand in his, with surprising amounts of gentleness, and shook it after a moment. His hand lingered for a several moments longer than was proper and he forced himself to back away.  
Or so it seemed that way to Madara.  
"Your parents must be quite knowledgeable about a wide way of subjects if they would give you a name such as that," Tobirama stated with confidence. "They must surely have great things in store for you, Sakuya-hime."  
Sakuya glared at the Senju with great annoyance and displeasure. "Don't even start with that nickname Tobi! I get enough of that bullshit from my mentors and watchers!"  
She grimaced and looked down for a moment, falling silent as the grave.  
Madara didn't like the fact she considered her clanmates as watchers or observers but given how the elders and the extended branches of the clan seemed to look down on her for being only half Uchiha, he couldn't hold it against her.  
If they learned of her abilities immediately, or even guessed on the sheer potential at her fingertips, that animosity would likely turn into outright hate and fear.  
He, of all people, knew all too well how that would end, having been on the receiving end of the betrayal by his beloved clan before.   
All Madara could do was make sure they didn't try anything drastic. If they did...  
The man in a child's body glared intensely at nothing.  
Lost in his thoughts, Madara turned back to the scene when he noticed their surroundings quickly become shrouded in thick mist or fog.  
 _Is this the Hiding in Mist jutsu?_  
Before his niece and her unwanted company were hidden completely, Madara saw a most unwelcome sight.  
Tobirama and Hashirama were staring at her incredulously, a dark and very noticeable blush on their cheeks, and the hellion herself was blushing in mortification more than anything else.   
Tobirama raised two fingers to his lips just as the mist took over the area completely.  
Madara felt her tiny hand slip into his and at her urgent tugging forward followed after her as they ran away from the scene.

Sakuya was damn close to having a full on mental breakdown as she pulled Madara along with her. The image of what she did was burned into her mind, and she knew it was due to the two diabolical Game Masters screwing over her rolls and making sure she didn't forget that blunder than the Sharingan activating to record the moment forever.  
Gavin really must have decided to mess her up. He had to! There was no other way to explain how she shifted from fully intending to show her dislike for their presence and how they were quickly becoming annoying with wanting to know more about her by kicking them in the balls, to kissing them both on the lips.  
And the Narration!  
 _ **"Sakuya moves to grab both boys and positioned her legs to knee them quickly, but instead lightly touches her lips against theirs in swift succession. Hashirama is blushing darkly and seemed embarrassed and unsure of how to react. Tobirama is blushing, stunned and flustered. In addition to stealing the first kisses of Tobirama and Hashirama Senju, you stole the first kisses of your uncle's as well. You perverted little girl, you."**_

Along with that was the creation of new freidnship bonds with both Senju.  
Sakuya let go of Madara's hand and scratched her scalp carefully but frantically. She wanted to lash out but didn't know what to say or do that wouldn't draw more suspicion to herself.  
Madara was eying her with a strange knowing look and it bothered her a fair bit.  
Before she could ask him what was wrong now, Sakuya stopped running at hearing the sounds of snarling and cursing nearby. The thick stench of fresh blood drew her attention and she stiffened at hearing the rustling of the nearby bushes near where the scent was coming from.  
"We should leave," Madara stated as he stopped near her and eyed the possible threat.  
A person or what appeared to be a person exited the bushes, clutching his chest protectively. He was dressed in a traveling Buddhist monk style of clothing and was leaning heavily against his shakujo, the six ringed staff. His features were pretty young, in his middle twenties to late twenties, and were definitely aesthetically pleasing to her taste. He had neck length sandy blond hair that was layered and a bit spiked up at the ends and dark green eyes that danced with mirth and mischief even in his current state. His lips were turned into a cunning and slightly perverted grin.  
And that's were the human elements ended.  
Sakuya saw the fluffy despite being covered in blood sandy blond tail, noticed his strange animal ears on top of his head, and saw pale golden markings around his eyes and in his visible flesh.  
She quickly scanned the individual and the world halted slightly.  
 _ **Name: Seishi  
Race: Tanuki  
Age: 500 years old  
Occupation: Mentor of sensitives and likes to freeload. Tend to bring good luck to households or people he haunts but never was a familiar.  
Main chakra natures are: sand, earth, wind and water.  
Extra information: While very knowledgeable about the realms of humans and youkai, Seishi is highly perverted. He also loves alcohol and gambling.  
Warning - Health is at fourty percent. Chakra is critically low.**_

Madara had stepped in front of her as if to shield her from the suspicious person which was funny to think about.  
"Young Lord? Little lady?" The man or entity rather supposedly named Seishi exclaimed with a wide grin. "What a surprise to see two Uchiha clan members in a place like this!"  
Madara eyed him darkly, his hands positioned to grab at one of hidden kunai in his sleeves.   
Sakuya on the other hand was far to focused on figuring out what is going on here.  
 _"What is the meaning of this, Gavin?"_ She mentally yelled out to the ever-present GM.  
In response, the man chuckled with a strange lightness that was almost off-putting for the situation.  
In her mind, she pictured him folding his hands and resting them on his torso as he picked and chosed what to say and what to leave out.  
 **"What kind of rpg doesn't have random encounters, monsters, hidden events, and puzzles?!"**  
Sakuya had to admit he had a point there.   
 _"I'm still pissed you made me roll a one and forced me to kiss those two,"_  she said, mentally pouting at the man.  
 **"I'll make up for my blunder later. But at least they think favorably of you...?"** Gavin trailed off as if unsure of what to say.  
Apparently even he didn't expect that to happen.  
"You are a tanuki?" Sakuya asked the monk cosplayer who turned to her in wide eyed surprise.  
The new arrival rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly for a moment and then nodded. "That's right, little one. You have some very sharp senses for one your age."  
He stopped himself and suddenly approached them, crouching down to her level and sniffing her hair and neck before standing up and taking a step back.  
"What the fuck, Seishi?!" Sakuya demanded as she checked to make sure he didn't do anything weird to her.  
Seishi's grin widened even more. "I figured you were a Uchiha, given the boy you are with has the presence of a pure blood member, but this was quite a treat. There has never been an albino Uchiha before but that seems more of a cover or a single aspect of your capabilities than anything else." He chuckled a little, and it was a surprisingly warm and comforting sound. "How did you know my name little one?"  
"Clearly, it's because I'm the number one deity of this world!"   
Madara and Seishi shared a look before bursting out laughing at her declaration.  
"More like a deity in training," Madara teased.  
 _So mocking my sarcastic comment helped Madara relax? The hell is with that?_  
"I will remember this slight when I rule this universe," Sakuya declared dramatically.  
All three of them cracked up then and everything was fun and games until whatever hurt the tanuki decided to show up to the party.

  
Hisato didn't know whether to hug the tanuki or grab his unconscious daughter and Madara from underneath his arms and slam the door in his face.  
On one hand, Seishi was the one who taught him nearly everything he knew about spirits, monsters, his own sight, abilities and senses.  
On the other, he was a shameless troublemaker who would curse and bless people out of boredom.  
"Ah, I thought it was you Hisa-chan!" Seishi said in greeting, grinning mischievously the entire time.  
Hisato flinched at the nickname from his old mentor.   
"Sensei..." The Uzumaki stepped aside and let the tanuki inside after giving him a warning. "I will not allow you to haunt her or anyone else here. You can stay here until you heal properly and then you must leave."  
Seishi looked at him seriously and Hisato knew whatever he was going to say next would be important to both of them. The tanuki placed Madara down on the ground outside the house and handed over Sakuya to him with a rather soft expression on his face.  
"You don't have any idea what she truly is... And what she capable of becoming."  
After saying that the tanuki patted his shoulder in sympathy and reassurance as he passed him and entered the house. He paused shortly to look behind him and added, "And I owe her a life debt. She saved me and the boy from a very sticky situation."  
"Sakuya's only three! She hasn't even started to be trained yet! How could she..." Hisato began and stopped dead when the tanuki started to laugh in an mildly unhinged manner.  
"She will definitely need to learn how to control herself soon then. If she could cause that much damage acting on instinct and raw power, then I shudder to think what will happen as she grows. Sakuya-hime will only become stronger and more knowledgeable," Seishi said. He then looked around the main house and snorted. "Hasn't changed much since I was last here. Damn traditionists."  
Hisato chuckled a little at hearing his mentors dislike for unchanging moments and clans. His thoughts of things that never change were the same as them being dead was a familiar argument the two had often in the past.  
"I'll bring Koria and Tajima here after I place Sakuya in her room so we can discuss what happened," Hisato said and quickly did as he said he would. In addition, he placed Madara in the same room as well, having a feeling that when he woke up and didn't see her near him that the young boy would frantically search for her.

Within ten minutes Tajima and Koria Uchiha had joined Hisato and their guest in the formal tea room, and the topic immediately went to the safety of the two children.  
Or more importantly the drinks offered.  
"Tea? Really, Hisa-chan?" Seishi whined. His eyes peered into the green liquid with barely hidden disgust.  
Hisato snorted at his complaints. "Be glad I got you anything, you lush." He glared at the Tanuki who was clearly showing his tail and ears along with fangs and claws by now. "Care to tell me why you suddenly appeared with my unconscious family and smelling like a sake house?"  
The tanuki rubbed one of his ears in thought. "That's a bit of a long story. From my end it started with checking out some rumors of male humans and youkai suddenly vanishing in a nearby forest." Taking in the shock and disbelief the demon thought they were dissing his concern. "I actually care a great deal about humanity. I find you guys and your struggles interesting."  
"Continue Seishi-san," Tajima ordered but managed to add on the honorific at the last moment.  
"I traveled into the lair and noticed a lot of skeletons but found some people still alive and mostly unharmed. Among the males and one or two females was quite a stunner of a beauty. Long, thick black hair, lovely amber eyes, a body to die for..." Seishi started to giggle like the pervert he was.  
Hisato sighed in frustration. "I can see where this is going."  
Seishi shrugged helplessly. "Well, I spent some time getting to know her and nearly ended up dying. Damn woman was a Jorogoro."  
Koria refocused on the conversation then. "You actually attempted to seduce a man eating female demon?"  
Once again the tanuki shrugged helplessly. He did look a little ashamed by that though.  
"Not one of my best moments," Seishi admitted with a grimace. "After I managed to escape with my life, barely at that, I ran into the two kids."  
"Why are they unconscious?" Koria asked sternly.  
Seishi became deadly serious and stared into his tea cup before drinking some of it. After a moment of obvious hesitation, he explained what happened.  
"The Jorogoro followed me, probably fearful of me telling others where it was, and attacked the three of us. The girl, Sakuya-hime I would learn later, fought back with far more knowledge and mastery in ninjutsu techniques and elemental natures than anyone her apparent age should be capable. It was more instinctual like the jutsu and dodging or fighting was as easy and thoughtless as breathing. Few humans can accomplish that in their lifetimes, and here was a girl who was doing that." Seishi paused and took in deep calming breath as he looked up at the three adults in turn. "This is where things get weird."  
"Sakuya obviously has acquired the Sharingan somehow as the first stage was activated to try and make up for the distinct disadvantage of her size and age but that didn't work out well. Which is where I noticed she had this insane natural healing ability...for a human. As the spider queen tried to impale her, succeeding more times then I expected, the wounds healed around it before she sliced off the legs piercing her flesh. The legs were then passively broken down into nothing or pushed out of her flesh and finished mending the wound leaving not a sign of the damage or a scar behind."  
Koria covered her mouth in shock. "How?" Her whisper was soft and sad.  
No one knew but they continued to listen to the story.  
"It took about an hour or two to put her and her spider minions down. Given my health right then, I helped where I could with Sakuya but focused on taking out her poisonous and fire breathing pet spiders with the boy called Madara. Once the last one had curled up and died, we turned to face the girl who was systemically destroying the monsters flesh once the legs were all gone. All I could do, was see her somehow devour the monster."  
Hisato frowned deeply. He out of all the humans there knew what Seishi meant by devouring.  
"My daughter ate the spider demon?"  
Seishi made a so-so gesture with his right hand. "It wasn't like how the mindless, low to medium ranked spirits, monsters, and ayakashi do it. She didn't physically consume her. Some kind of tangible darkness or shadows surrounded her and the target and the human devoured the mind and essence of the youkai, draining it of life and chakra that way. The Jorogoro's body then proceeded to rapidly decay until not even dust was left of it. Sakuya then passed out."  
"That's a very rare ability. An ayakashi ability," Hisato started but was cut off by his wife's concern.  
"Why is Madara unconscious then?"  
Seishi laughed awkwardly. "He started to panic and ran to her side. When he noticed the below average heartbeats and the deep state of sleep she was in, he worried even more. I knocked him out to not have to deal with an emotional brat wanting answers and hightailed it here."  
The stunned expressions on their faces proved how taken aback they were with everything that happened in the story.  
And because Seishi was shameless he added, "I want to watch the little miss who appears human but can use youkai abilities instinctively grow. That and I really don't have a home right now so I intend to become her familiar and live here or with her at least. I do hope we all get along."  
Horror and surprise joined the stunned expressions and Seishi took that as a job well done.

  
Sakuya opened her eyes a short time after the meeting and noticed she was staring into the sleeping face of Madara. A part of her still wanted to mess with the man, child, hell demon for all she knew, but the rest wanted to sleep again.   
So she settled on giving him a kiss on the cheek before resting her head over his heart and headed back to sleep.

  
Sam quickly sat up in her bed, flinging the black and white cat off her chest in the process. Sweat stuck to her skin as she tried to shake off the feeling that something took an odd turn.  
"I had the strangest dream. I dreamt that my appearance changed, that I accepted an omnious deal, that I rolled low in social situations and rolled high in battle or random events hence kissing both founding fathers of Konoha and their brothers, I acquired my unique sexy nature, and that I acquired experience points by devouring or killing off that giant spider woman."   
She smiled happily at knowing it was just a dream based off an strange game. Maybe, everything was just a long dream.  
 **"You forgot about having me with you,"** Madara pointed out with far too much glee.   
He must have really wanted to ruin her mood.  
Madara must have access to her memories, or her dreams at the very least since she felt his acute horror and disgust like it was her own.  
 **"And did you have to kiss Tobirama and Hashirama, along with Izuna?!"**  
"I noticed you aren't complaining about me as Sakuya kissing you," Sam teased with a crooked grin.  
 **"Be silent! I do not want to see you engage in such acts again in the future!"** Madara scolded the young woman, unknowingly sealing his fate.  
"Let me think about that." She paused for a second, her hand to her chin as if in thought before continuing in a sarcastic tone, "Someone is jealous of himself. I'm just going to need to see where this goes. For science!"  
The headache she gained from Madara pacing and fuming in her skull was worth it.  
The training from hell beginner course of just running and evading and increasing physical strength and stamina was just barely worth the harassing of the man in her mind.  
After hours of nonstop training, Samantha returned to her rented rooms after taking a shower to check on her blog. Someone had taken it down, and she wondered if Royce and Gavin had a hand in that.  
Instead of blogging she started up again much like Artificial Academy 2 and found versions of Naruto characters before dropping them into her class room and the students in the high school along with teachers and so on.   
"Think I should start up a Yandere Roulette?"   
Madara didn't know what to say to that other than, **"Isn't that risky now?"**  
Sam tilted her head to the side. "How so?"  
 **"Those two bastards started this on your end with a game before. This could affect things to come..."**  
"You worry too much, Madara!"

Still, she decided against the idea and started up the original game only to reappear in her bed with Madara...  
Again...  
"This is getting all kinds of weird now."


	3. False Life

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> History Lessons, teasing, and the first signs of instability.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lesson One: Synchronized panicking is not a proper battle plan.

There was something to be said about waking up next to your crush or former crush. Quite another to wake up in a fictional universe beside their crush. Especially when the dream you had right before hand was where you continued from.  
The fact that time didn't seem to have passed as quickly when she dreamed of the game, combined with the truth that no one else seemed to see she was different or rather the people who knew her didn't notice her changed appearance and the observation that she had the stamina and physical health to even survive the easiest physical conditioning exercises, all caught her off guard.  
Especially the beyond healthy body she had in the real world now. As someone who was struggling with bad health and being overweight nearly all of her life suddenly lose all the excess weight and have some basic muscles and toned body as if she had just started to exercise, this was a godsend if insane to contemplate in general.  
Sakuya shook off her worries and pulled up her status screen where she saw that she acquired quite a lot of experience from killing that Jorogumo earlier.  
There wasn't a traditional leveling system in the game, more like something like Skyrim where the more they used a skill, the more powerful and better at it she became. Sakuya had a feeling that if she defeated others she would become stronger and access better skills.  
The chakra natures she experimented with were listed and checking on them showed that she could boost the damage output or have add more effects or prolong things like burning and paralysis.  
The new unique ability was ominously called Heart of the Void.  
Her eyes widened in amazement and horror at what it could currently do.

_**The Active Heart of the Void Offers:** _

_**Ability to absorb the mind, soul, experience and abilities of anything with chakra/energy after weakening them sufficiently** _   
_**Disintegration of body pieces if enough chakra is removed.** _   
_**Conversion - The ability to convert the experience and abilities of her victims into a form that she can use. This ability allows her the option to consciously use abilities at will.** _   
_**The blood of any sacrificial victims and Sakuya's blood turn black while a sacrifice is made. If overexerted, Sakuya's sclarelas begin to blacken. Following a sacrifice, nothing but dust is left behind for anything with chakra or general energy in it.** _   
_**The ability to talk with and learn from the minds and souls of those she has absorbed.** _   
_**Inability to break off a sacrifice.** _

"You sure this isn't some Jashin level of bullshit?" Sakuya asked the cruel Game Master and man behind everything. Because the menu was up she did not have to worry about anyone overhearing her. "It's talking about sacrifices and using people's souls or whatever in exchange for boosting my stats."  
 **"You can also purify and engrave skills, bloodlines and so on to use them in other games and the real world,"** Gavin pointed out helpfully.  
Sakuya really didn't want to linger on the consequences or reasoning on how and why it would affect the real world.   
_Just not even going there._  
"So this spider bitch," Sakuya began then was interrupted.  
" **That was over four hundred years old, consumed a lot of people, and you killed by not only piercing her heart with a fucking Chidori, which is another jutsu steal before it's creation by the way, but by turning your left arm into a huge and demonic looking arm ending in an elaborate clawed hand. Said clawed hand was then placed over the spider woman's skull and crushed, killing her for good."**  
"Thank you for the blow by blow summary. I never would have remembered that little event otherwise," Sakuya said sarcastically.  
Gavin must have failed a detect sarcasm roll since he laughed cheerfully and said, **"It was nothing, Creator! I'm just doing what I can."**  
She scratched her head at the antics. "Just use the spider bitch to boost my Sharingan and any other bloodline abilities I currently have. If I'm going to be an overpowered power hungry bastard, than I might as well go all the way."  
Sakuya stopped at realizing she was physically moving when the world was stilled, her mouth dropping open slightly in amazement. Then she grinned wickedly.  
 _I should test the limits of this,_ she thought with a wicked grin.  
She got up off the bed, moved to where her father left some textbooks and writing utensils, removed a small pristine brush from the collection and some bottles of ink and prepared it. Once the black liquid was in her hands, she carefully carried it over to the bed and with an artistic flair that would have gained her approval from the toughest in-universe skeptics made her joking claim to the boy obvious.  
Stylistic flames covered his jarline and root like designs surrounded his eyes. Written across Madara's face were a pretty accurate statement when she looked back on it many years later.  
At least the second sentence was unfortunately true. Everything was 20/20 in hindsight.  
"Hello, my name is Gaydara. I am Sakuya's whipped bitch. If you see me alone, please return me to her."  
Sakuya quickly removed the excess ink from the brush and decided to experiment with game mechanics before she ended the tactical pause screen.  
Focusing on the game staple of inventory screen caused a new semi-transparent screen with many healing items, manuals, plant clippings, countless tradable goods and rare items worth a nice amount, material for crafting items, what seemed to be a bag or pouch of holding, and enough Ryo to make even Kakuzu envious, to appear.  
When Sakuya tried thinking ‘Bag of Holding and ten thousand ryo’, she found that a dark brown leather bag suddenly appeared from her shadow.  
 _Huh? This shadow was my inventory?_  
It seems like an incredibly final boss like action, but let’s leave that aside for now and check out the contents of the bag.  
The bag opened up to an endless dark abyss and Sakuya thought of one hundred ryo as she reached into it and the desired amount appeared in her hand as she removed it. Further testing there proved the requested amounts would appear in my hands as well without having to dig through the object at times.  
Because Sakuya took out the Bag of Holding, the inventory screen reflected that.  
As a test, Sakuya dropped the brush above her shadow and gently placed the ink container on the areas her shadow touched while thinking about putting it away.  
The brush and ink container was completely swallowed up by the shadow, and the display now had the addition of A normal small fine brush x1, a small ink container.  
"This is going to be so much fun!" Sakuya exclaimed in joy. Her mind was already being filled with ways to troll others, play pranks, and set traps if she ever was surrounded.  
Next Sakuya thought about closing the inventory screen, and the display suddenly vanished.  
With the display closed, when she concentrated on bringing the recently added items out, they appeared from the shadow.  
When Sakuya thought about putting them away again, they just sank into the shadow.  
 _It seems that even without the display open, as long as I know what’s inside, I can bring it out,_ Sakuya thought with glee.  
She removed six manuals from the inventory and placed them in her bag for quick reading later on.  
They were: Youkai and Yurei Bestiary; All the Secrets Dedicated to the Natures; Potion Making, Poison Making, Crafting, and Blacksmithing; History of the World: Part One; Warping Made Easy; and How to survive off the grid - covers carpeting skills, foraging, gardening, hunting, dowsing for water.  
At the very least two of those books would guarantee her survival on the future.  
Sakuya climbed back into the bed after making sure there was no proof that she messed with Madara and had memorized her work of art with the Almighty Sharingan. She decided to get some more sleep, and settled down.

-

Seishi definitely liked this little girl. He liked her a lot. She had style and guts. Reminded her of that moon scented girl he was fond of.  
Actually, if he was being honest, she reacted and acted like her and there was a faint otherness to her scent beyond the forest, and fire and blood. Something perfectly identical to the moon touched brat.   
Whether she was the moon touched girl or not, Sakuya had the metaphorical balls to prank her uncle and wave it off like she didn't have idea how he got that message on his face. She wasn't the least bit intimidated and actually cried that he would accuse her of such a thing.  
Using her apparent age against him, making it sound like he was the one harassing her and not the other way around, and acting like his accusations hurt her tender feelings...  
 _This girl is one fine actress,_ Seishi thought. _Just like moonshine..._  
"I'm sorry, Sakuya. I didn't mean to make you cry," Madara said with great worry as he hugged the smaller child to him and rubbed her back soothingly. "I know you wouldn't do anything like that. So please stop crying for me, Saku."  
Seishi watched in amusement as Sakuya-hime nodded her head shyly and hugged him back. The entire scene in front of him was just hilarious to watch. The young girl had ensnared and tricked her older relative so well that the poor human couldn't tell he was being tricked at all.  
Seishi frowned suddenly when he saw the boy blush faintly when Sakuya told him that she was so happy that he didn't hate her, and added that she loved him so much.  
 _Oh, dear. The crazy bastard is reacting in similar ways too._  
"I could and would never hate you, Sakuya." Madara said with such certainly that it took both of them back. He had a warm expression and a slight smile on his face as he looked down at her.  
The tanuki decided to intervene before the little girl broke the boy more he already was. Uchiha were crazy enough, and Seishi didn't want to deal with any that may or may not catch any feelings.  
"I need to borrow Sakuya-hime. I want to talk to her alone so," Seishi raised his hand and the door opened. Within a second, Madara was lifted up and with a lazy wave of his hand the demon tossed the eight year old boy outside the bedroom. He then placed a barrier to prevent eavesdroppers and people from entering the bedroom.  
Seishi pulled over a chair and sat it nearby and off to the side of where she was sitting down on the bed, and looked at her with a warm grin.  
"Hello, Sakuya. My name is Seishi. I am a tanuki, a yokai. I would like to be your familiar," Seishi explained as he sat down in the chair.  
He didn't have to wait long to get a response.  
"Fuck no. I know how tanuki, inugami, Kitsune and other youkai used as familiars can betray their summoner or contractor just as easily as they destroy their enemies." Short, blunt and to the point. The girl was giving him a mocking shit eating grin while dashing his hopes and dreams.  
 _Just like her._  
Seishi grimaced since he personally knew what she was referencing. Instead of denying that, he decided to add incentives. "I know of Gavin. I met him once or twice." Or a few hundred times. "If you go through with this, not only would I be forever loyal and faithful but I will teach you everything I learned in my lifetime." He shrugged before adding, "Of course, that includes telling you everything I discovered and the encounters with your creations."  
Adding creations to the end proved that he knew enough of what he was saying to be trusted.  
Sakuya looked at him with far more cunning, cruelty, and intelligence than most humans he met in either life, and distantly he suspected that he should have been bothered by the fact she dropped the child or baby act completely.  
"What are the cons of this partnership? If it doesn't work out, would you curse me?"  
Seishi smirked at her, knowing she was considering it. "You personally would always be considered a summoner and some might view you and your immediate family as being an Tsukimono-suji family. Such families are respected and feared, but are also openly shunned. In addition to this, because the yokai are believed to be passed down mainly through the female line, it is often nearly impossible for women of such families to find a husband whose family will agree to have him married to a member of an tsukimono-suji family. In such a union the woman's status as a Tsukimono-suji would transfer to any man who married her." He shrugged. "On the plus side, I would never curse you either way."  
"So I would never have to worry about being married off for some political bullshit?"  
Seishi raised an eyebrow. "Yes?"  
"Let's do this!"  
Seishi laughed long and hard for some time. Once he calmed down, he looked at her softly. "Your father said the same thing. Hisato is really protective of you."  
The girl looked surprised and worried about that. "I am very lucky to have such a parent."  
Sakuya physically shook off her thoughts and feelings to focus on more important things. "Tell me what you know of Gavin."  
He shifted in the chair slightly. "Most of what I know, I pierced together over the centuries." And talked to the asshole over the years as he bragged about what he did and collected. "There are gaping holes in some areas, but I got the basic outline of the world and what's going on in the background."  
The tanuki relaxed and settled his own thoughts into an understandable narrative.  
"You know of the canon plot and timeline, right Sakuya-hime?" Seishi asked.  
 _Well, clearly she would if she is the moon scented one._  
Sakuya hesitated for a moment then nodded her head.  
"Gavin appeared between one thousand and one thousand five hundred years ago. Upon his arrival he made sure that chakra or energy was present and got rid of the Jubbuko," Seishi paused to look over the girl who wasn't surprised to hear the God Tree was a yokai. Or at least was a yokai in this offshoot of the canon timeline All the Divine trees anywhere did was consume the blood of humans and other races to feed itself and survive after all. It likely made complete sense to one such as her. "After that, he taught the humans how to channel chakra for both good and ill and to ensure war wouldn't break out so soon created thousands of beings and hundreds of races they could form countries and thrive. With this, humans stopped fighting and built marvelous cultures and buildings whose ruins survive to this day and are still filled with knowledge and loot."  
The gleam in her dark red eyes at hearing about the lost knowledge and loot was interesting to observe. She was exactly how that man described her as, and how he remembered the moon girl. That was reassuring.  
"Kaguya Otsutsuki and her minions of a family eventually arrived. Gavin outright killed Kaguya in his Creator's Honor (or some such rot) and offered the rest of her kin the choice between playing nice or being erased from existence of the universe. They played nice."  
Disbelief was evident in her narrowed eyes. Her lips tightened at her withholding questions until it became to much for her and they tumbled out in a rush, "How the hell is the Uchiha clan existing then? For that matter how can the Senju, the Uzumaki and everything else exist?!"  
Seishi nodded his head in understanding the question. Even he didn't get it fully until Gavin told him directly.  
"Bloodline limits and even to a lesser point clans and dormany bloodlines ended up like this because he made sure to keep the plot and the world somewhat close to how it should be. Events, jutsu, and so on are similar enough. As such, some clans are mere mutations over the years, random occurrence which spreads to the rest of their descendants in other words, while some are descendants of human and non-human races. Every other generation or so there is at least one person born with more power than normal in said clans. If it is from a mixture of blood then said person is generally considered to take after their ancestor or ancestors more."  
"That's surprisingly logical," Sakuya said.  
That was all she said about the subject.  
She looked at him seriously then. "Kaguya was killed before she ate the chakra fruit, before she ever had her twin sons of Hagoromo and Hamura, before the ten tails bullshit happened. Hell, there aren't even rumors of tailed beasts. So how the hell does this work out?"  
Seishi sighed. He, himself, was pleased to be reborn into this game of the trio's or whatever, but it was bothersome that he was the only tailed beast. Or at least possess the memories of one, joining his own new memories. "To my knowledge, Hagoromo and Hamura were born from a different union between Otsutsuki and humans. Such unions were pretty common. The children of Hagoromo were actually more than just Indra and Asura, and I do not know if the two I mentioned had children since most concrete information about the two was lost when a war broke out. After that happened two forces of nature formed and gained their own followers. They competed with each other for survival ever since and seemed to be have a brotherly hatred for one another. Many seem to think they don't even exist outside of rumors." The girl seemed to suspect where he as going with this, if her scrunched up and disbelieving expression on her face was any indication. "They are known as Tengan the God of Light and Jashin the God of Darkness."  
Sakuya hit her forehead with her palm and then strangled the air. Clearly she was imagining strangling the man.  
He couldn't blame her. Gavin drove him into a corner on this matter and other subjects, and he wouldn't mind punching the guy.  
"So, Jashin is a thing." Sakuya sighed then shrugged again like none of the revelations changed what she wished to do. "I'll take that in exchange with not having to deal with Kaguya, Zetsu, and possibly dodging the whole insanity of Hagoromo and Hamura hanging around along with the reincarnation bullshit. Having to deal with the god of wanton destruction and death or two is much preferable."  
 _That's an interesting way of thinking about things, young miss,_ Seishi thought in awe, sweat coating his forehead at seeing how she viewed things.  
Seishi recovered himself enough to continue. "While I have only heard of tailed beasts from Gavin or the brief, and utterly terrifying encounter I had with Jashin who no doubt heard the same thing from the man, I would hazard a guess that all the yokai, the yurei and other monsters and spirits here make up for it." He paused in thought. "There might be a few who take after the tailed beasts more. I know of one for certain..."   
_That is, my humble self... Technically, at least._  
Sakuya looked at him with great interest then. "I want to find him and make him my bitch as well."  
 _Why am I not surprised?_  
Seishi sighed as he grabbed her hands in his. He lowered his head over them and seriously said, "You are going to cause so much trouble, mess with so many people and break so many hearts, Sakuya-hime. The least I could do is make sure you won't get burned or caught."  
Somehow the barrier dropped and Madara came charging into the room, skidding to a halt when he saw their position.  
Now normally, Seishi would wave the awkward situation away and defuse it easily but this wasn't normal by any stretch of the imagination. The boy was very protective of his brother and niece from the little interaction they had so far, but the interaction between Sakuya and himself was different. Far more than relatives or close friends and seeped with shared secrets spoken and unspoken...  
Or so it seemed like that on the older boy's side.   
Sakuya didn't seem to care about their unusually close connection, or at the very least didn't seem phased by the implications and contemplations later on.  
"What are you doing to Sakuya?" Madara demanded.  
Worry and concern grew in the raccoon dog as this could so easily end up with him getting hurt and he was nowhere near healthy enough to put up with an attack. Madara was still low on chakra after fighting the monster a few hours ago, so Seishi didn't have to worry about fireballs flying his way at least.  
 _Now as long as Sakuya-hime didn't say anything...._  
"Seishi has just finished swearing his eternal love, loyalty and devotion to me!" Sakuya exclaimed with great amazement and joy. Across her cheeks was a dark blush which she tried to cover with her tiny hands. A shy lovely smile settled on her face and her gaze struggled to stay away from Seishi.  
Seishi laughed, the sound slightly unhinged as the overprotective uncle lunged at him.

-

  
Izuna watched his older brother pace around the training ground near the main house, the older boy muttering darkly under his breath. Flames seemed to dance around his fingers, and with each turn in his back and forth walking, he became more agitated. The words were so quiet that it was rare for Izuna to catch anything, but that didn't mean they weren't passionate...or angry.  
"How dare she do that!" Madara said clearly, seemingly coming to a stop and started to burn with rage.  
The younger boy sighed in relief, knowing that it was about their niece. "She's three, big brother." A faint blush covered his face for a moment as he continued, "For all her intelligence, her instinct and insights, she is still younger than even us. We are children, so naturally kisses don't mean the same to us as it is for older people. And for her it is just something she likely saw others do, like her parents, and wanted to emulate as a sign of deep affection."  
An intense expression of dissatisfaction settled on his brother's face, and his eyes were darker than normal with an conflicted emotion that Izuna couldn't for the life of him grasp. His brother was always odd like that... especially where it concerned her.  
"Right," Madara slowly said. "Just a gesture of good will, affection and appreciation. There is no other meaning to that."  
Izuna scrunched his nose at the idea of there being something else, but put that aside as Madara had worked himself into a tirade.  
"How could she know what that book was? How could she have access to that information? How did she know those jutsu and why did she transform into a-" Madara stopped rambling and there was a visible blush on his face as he turned his head away.  
"And what did my darling little girl transform into?"  
A feeling of primal fear descended upon Izuna as he slowly turned his head back to look into the face of evil incarnate.  
Black pupilless eyes drilled mercilessly into his own black gaze and the usually pleasant upturn of the lip was gone. In it's place was a face splitting grin dripping with malice, bloodlust and insanity.  
"Well, Izuna? What did she transform into?"  
The words were soft, gentle but the raw chakra and killing intent emitting from the seemingky docile male nearly caused the young boy to choke or even pass out.  
 _I'm going to die. I'm going to die!_  
As if some benevolent deity heard his silent pleas to be spared, his darling niece came out of the shadows to save him.  
"Daddy! Cousin Kurumi showed me some interesting artwork and I transformed to show my uncles!"  
He didn't dare look at her or to his brother who was approaching them. No, he kept his focus solely on the sadistically grinning man.   
After what felt like an eternity, Hisato turned his attention to his daughter and Izuna could breath again.  
Distantly he heard Hisato ask more about what Kurumi did and what she was thinking by showing her that.  
"Kurumi-chan told me that once I'm older she'll show me what the images meant. Something about putting me in my place."  
There was a smaller expression of her father's twisted grin, the slasher smile, but Izuna knew that her smiles there were more innocent or based on emotions and feelings that pure malice. The confusion shining in her eyes as she looked between himself, her father and Madara proved she was lost about what that meant.  
Izuna was confused at this as well. That wasn't the same for Hisato and Madara.  
Killing intent emitted from both of them as their chakra manifested with their apparent rage. The ground beneath them cracked at the sheer intensity of the pressure.  
Eerily similar expressions of tranquility were on their faces.  
"Oh?" Hisato began, giving a closed eyed angelic grin. "I suppose I should talk to Kurumi."  
"Do you mind if I joined you?"  
Hisato turned his head down to sightlessly consider the eight year old before nodding. "Of course, Madara. It would be a good family bonding experience."  
And they walked off toward the area where a lot of branch family members houses lived.   
Izuna stared after them and only when the first ear-splitting screeches reached them did he run after the two.  
"Don't worry. I'm a medic nin." Hisato was heard saying calmly, and the screams became even more horrified.

Seishi looked down at the blank expression on his new little Miss's face, and figured out what she did.  
"This Kurumi never had artwork or said that too you."  
The little girl raised a thumb to her lip and lightly bit down in it. A sadistic, cruel and bloodthirsty grin full with dislike and malice stretched across her heart shaped face. Her dark red eyes glowed nefariously in excitement and grim satisfaction.  
"She promised me that she would put me in my place soon enough. A branch member should be the one to know their place, especially when challenging a main house member."  
The little girl said as way of explanation, and Seishi felt a shiver of fear and excitement run down his spine at how she controlled others by leaving details to their own mind and sensibilities.  
 _Just like her._  
He noticed that she was carrying something in her arms, and saw the letters weren't any kanji he knew. He guessed it was that odd language the moon blessed girl used for certain things, and nodded his head at the connection.  
"What are you writing?"  
"Tips, tricks, things not to do, things to do... What I observe or do."  
 _That sounded like her as well._  
"And what is written there?" Seishi pointed at the foreign letters that was the first observation.  
The smile eased to a normal mind breaking smirk. "Synchronized panicking is not a proper battle plan."  
Seishi glanced around them, seeing the chaos a little push from her caused, the panicking Uchiha everywhere and decided it was an accurate depiction of the madness.  
"Right... Shall I teach you some jutsu?"  
She looked at him with so much disinterest and was on the verge of ignoring hin that Seishi felt like she would ignore him enough until he questioned his own existence.  
"What can you actually teach me?"  
The moon scented girl knew of or could use any jutsu, but that had yet to happen with her. That was why he didn't take her words to heart.  
Seishi rubbed his chin in thought. "Do you know what the Falsify Life jutsu is?"  
Sakuya looked at him curiously. Her eyes darted back and forth, a physical manifestation of her checking to see if she knew what it was. The girl shook her head and admitted with great reluctant, "No I don't. What is it?"  
Seishi lead her back to her room where he explained about the jutsu...and to move away from the panicking around them.  
Gavin decided to pop in an make several announcements in her mind. **"Acquired the Falsify Life passive and active ability. Acquired Seishi the tanuki as a new bond and familiar. Good job with forgetting a former tai-"** he stopped himself. The jovial tone became subdued as he finished up. **"Learned where your resting bitch face, slasher smiles and polite bright grins came from. Learned that Madara is just as overprotective as your father about the slightest perceived threat or insult towards you."**

-

Sam returned to reality and remove the device. She relaxed on the bed and meditated to enter the mental space within her and speak to the brooding voice in her mind face to face.  
The mental library had changed since the ghost had moved in and took over; it was brighter for one thing, a little less sinister but just as melodramatic. Madara had moved from an ornate and macabre throne made from bones and fur to a window where outside the blood red sun was just beginning to rise. He was paler than she thought he would be given the anime and manga knowledge but just as tall, he stood looking out the window with determination as if waiting for something, although what he was waiting for was unclear.  
He didn't turn to look at her entry. It looked like she'd have to start up the conversation, "So, man in my brain, how's the weather?"  
He turned to look at her slowly with a very odd expression, that same likely bafflement as the first time he seemed to realize he was stuck with her, perhaps combined with some fear, and frustration at the sheer lack of understanding of the insanity around him. "Samantha." He said dully.  
"Call me Sam, Sammy, or Sami. It's too formal and polite by calling me by the first name. Too direct too." She sighed and made her way through the library inspecting the books, she suspected they weren't real as they didn't have any titles. She flipped through one and found it filled with memories and facts about different series. How predictable.  
"Yes, we did." Madara said quietly, "There are a few things I'd like to ask you, Sam."  
"Really? Well, I can't guarantee you'll like the answers but go ahead Maddie-hime?"  
"Madara."  
"Right, ask away Madara." Sam corrected with a benevolent hand-gesture granting him permission to speak.  
He seemed a little put out by that but merely sighed, "Do you know who I am?"  
Well, that was a bit of a weird question considering they had gone through that whole song and dance of introducing themselves, or reintroducing as he had put it. Then there was the whole fact she was his niece in the game or other world and they were closer than anyone else was.  
"You're the man that lives in my brain, Madara," Sam said with a shit eating grin.  
"No! That's not…" He cut himself off rather deliberately with a look of extreme irritation. He smoothed back his hair.   
"What do you think about what happened in the other world, Madara?" She asked to change the topic.  
"I despise what is happening to me. It's inappropriate, unlikely, and pointless."  
"Ah, that's right. You are only after other people's wood."  
Warning pain richoted across her head at the reference to the great and fearless Madara and anything involving the other kind of wood or homosexuality was evidently forbidden.  
"And with that, I'm going to seduce the other you." She declared. "He is so cute and sweet and-"  
"Stop your rambling," Madara ordered.  
"Izu-"  
"Finish that name and I'll make you beg for death."  
"Kinky!"  
"Do you honestly have no sense of self-preservation?" He asked coldly with a strange half-grin that had no happiness only a deranged sort of madness, the library was shifting contorting itself into some unknown shape.  
Even as the floor tilted and she was beginning to slide out of her chair, as the candle-light wavered and threatened to extinguish, as the dark crashed in overhead like a wave she considered his question and answered with a faint smile that mirrored his, "Why should I have one?"  
The room stopped moving, the coldness drained from his features, he looked strangely tired he leaned against the wall his voice softer as he spoke, "Ah yes, I had almost forgotten. You truly can't die, can you? Or stay dead at least..."  
She didn't say anything, just looked at him, he seemed so sad in that moment, almost broken. It was funny, how he only reacted like this when he was on the edge of being shattered. A chuckle escaped him, and then a cascade of mad laughter. He put his head in his hands even while laughing.  
She felt she should apologize, every plan always went awry around her, but she figured he didn't want it. Here she was, listening to Madara break into hysterics over his own rhetorical question.  
"I guess not?" She finally answered, "I mean, I've not-died a couple times as you know, and I might have died a lot too, but I guess that's not really conclusive, you know. It's not like I've been trying really hard to actively kill myself."  
His laughter died down somewhat and that somber look returned as he regarded her the glitch that had destroyed his kingdom in a single blow. Then, Madara gave her a cockeyed fox's smile, one filled with hidden daggers for teeth.  
She smiled back at him, she didn't know how she knew, but she had the feeling that she and Madara were going to be great friends. Maybe it was the whole living in her body thing, but she just felt she knew him more than anyone else should, knew him truly, and that more importantly he knew her as well.  
"Tobirama is an option then?"  
"Touch him, indulge in his presence or desires, and a headache is the least of the problems you will have," Madara promised.  
"I wasn't asking about that, or your opinion on your other self." Sam said bluntly, deciding to move on away from the toothless threats he was giving. "I was talking about Seishi and the falsify life jutsu."  
That seemed to catch his interest as well.  
"There was no medical ninjutsu like that. At least none that I knew of."  
Falsify Life was both an active and passive medical ninjutsu. In other words, once it was activated, it stayed active and working on it's own, until it is purposely deactivated. It created the impression and appearance of something else.  
For instance, if used on someone, she could give them all the physical and even sensing presence of a corpse to sneak someone in or out through the idea of them being 'dead'.  
In a more combat oriented manner, it could be used to make even the greater sensors and others believe, see and feel that you were weaker than you were or even injured.   
Seishi told her why he was teaching the jutsu to her so soon. There was something wrong with her, something dark within her. It's why she is so ungodly powerful, and would only become more overpowered with death, suffering and devouring others. It was why most sensors either look over her automatically or react badly to seeing her.  
Due to the shadows and darkness inside her body, for some reason she had no organs. With no organs, there was no need for a chakra pathway network and so on.  
The Falsify Life ninjutsu would be used to give her the appearance and function of organs, the chakra pathway network, aura, presence, essence, and in general make her a normal human. At least as long as it was active.  
In truth, the darkness and shadows would become the chakra network and organs, acting as needed if checked on or damaged to a certain point, but otherwise not that present or relevant. The darkness would work like how normal people use chakra, and it would be perceived as like even to a sensor of Tobirama's caliber.  
She had tried out the jutsu, which was activated and deactivated by a strange hand seal which was crossing two fingers and focusing on what they wanted to accomplish with it. When it activated, she finally noticed something she should have a long time ago, and only hoped others didn't until now.  
Her heartbeat was significantly slowed down to the point where she didn't even know if she had one. Her lungs moved more on reflex and the realization they should than a true need.   
Thinking back, she didn't particularly feel a need to be hungry, or a desire to sleep, or drink, or go to the bathroom. She did all that as needed, more out of expectations than something she needed to live.  
When it was activated, her heart beated and did so at a normal speed for her age, here chest rose and fell, and she felt the darkness...or her chakra more likely, within her. It was a comforting warmth, reassuring and full of life.  
The blood in her veins, her muscles, her flesh and her skeleton were the only consistent things between having the Falsify Life activated or not.  
"It would be beneficial to have an ability like that. You could masquerade to be a normal human being as much as you desire, and hide the truth from these blind fools," Madara stated. As rude as that was, he did a point.  
At this point...could she be considered human?  
Not letting her linger on that, Madara continued. "As for what the tanuki was rambling on about for the overly condensed history of the world, it shouldn't be something we need to worry ourselves over."  
Sam smirked. "I was going to say that Seishi is Shukaku."  
Madara blinked. "What do you mean?"  
"Seishi is a tanuki, a raccoon dog. He loves alcohol, causing chaos, bloodthirsty and is a trickster. His chakra natures are wind, water, earth and sand."  
She pulled up the image of Shukaku from her memories and knowledge, then searched for the image of the tanuki Seishi. In mid air, two reflections or mirrors formed depicting the two of them formed. The most commonly assumed appearance of a human or yokai form of Shukaku was among the images.  
She made sure there were erotic pictures as well because seeing Madara cringe and turn his gaze away from suggestive images was just hilarious.  
"Sand, as in the unique ability of the one tailed beast and it's Jinchuriki!" She exclaimed with excitement.  
Madara regarded her carefully. Finally he said, "No. That would be retarded and overkill even for them."  
She wasn't quite sure what he meant but Madara didn't explain. Instead he waved her off, "I have nothing more to talk with you about. You may leave."  
What an insulting thing to say, considering it was her mind he was in in the first place. Still, she really didn't have anything else to say to him either right then. With a sigh, she stood up and slunked her way out of the library and into her normal conscious state.

-

Meanwhile in the Uchiha compound...  
"Shukaku, you are a tailed beast!" Two voices cheerfully announced to the tanuki who was drinking alone.   
Seishi stared blankly at the red haired sadistically grinning young man and the emotionless, expressionless blond male beside him before turning to the sleeping child of three in the bed.  
"Hail victory!" Royce stated loudly.  
"Hail Sengen!" Gavin said in a monotone manner.  
"You and the rest wanted another chance!"  
"Praise the Creator!"  
"And we-"  
"Will be dead motherfuckers if they don't head someplace else to cause trouble."  
Seishi grinned drunkenly at the raw discontent in the narrowed red eyes peeking out from behind long shaggy white bangs. He raised up his sake cup in acknowledgement to the girl.  
"Morning princess," he sarcastically said. "You have a few more hours to sleep before we start training."  
The girl grunted, rolled over and returned to slumber.  
"Idiots," the tanuki muttered.

 


	4. Ending a Cycle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> At that time, she'd built a world of make believe to retain her sanity.  
> And so she did, until the moment her inner pleas were granted...
> 
> "The cage imprisoning my malice was destroyed, taking reality along with it."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Implied deaths and past abuse. Abuse. Signs of mental Instability.

Sakuya was back at the place where she ran into the two Senju the day before. The place where Hashirama and Madara spent time together in their youth. Or where they were meant to get to know each other.  
Madara wasn't going to play that game, so Sakuya figured that with her appearance marking her different from either of her clans, she could get close to them for her own purposes.  
She was no fool. Her clan wouldn't pass up the opportunity to use her to spy on their enemies, or have explore and enter places they couldn't. It was only a matter of time.  
"Let's destroy a half miles worth of forest on route to this place! I'm sure no one will notice the fact that the trees that were used to replace it do not belong in this type of environment!" The sarcasm coming from the tanuki behind her made want to punch his head in.  
Sakuya sighed and looked behind her to see Seishi taking fresh fruit like bananas, oranges, apples, cherries, peaches, and nectarines off the new trees and placed them into his greedy waiting arms.  
"If you are going to whine, then don't take the food."  
Seishi pouted like a petulant child. "Don't tell me what to do you damn brat! I'll do what I want! Besides, it's free food and-"  
And she went back to tuning him out.

-

Seishi was unfortunately right. It was a stupid move, but it was done to get the attention of Hashirama or even Tobirama. The little girl highly doubted they would return to this exact place, at least not anything soon, but she wanted to start to get to know them. It would be easier to befriend them for whatever reason as a child.  
Pulling herself out of her thoughts, Sakuya sat down against a tree trunk and looked around her, taking in the nature of the world she was in for the first time.  
"It's so different compared to home."  
"What are you yammering on about now," Seishi asked. Suspicion and wariness warred for dominance in his voice.  
"Your 'god' daddy," Sakuya said automatically.  
The tanuki flipped her off before returning to his stolen meal, leaving her in a peaceful repose.  
 _This world was different. Beautiful._  
She took a deep breath, even if it was unneeded, and focused on how crisp and pure the wind and air was. When she had first returned from the game, she had noticed the drastic difference in quality in everything.  
Beneath her body was healthy roots, unpolluted earth and chemical free plants. The sound of water, free of contaminants, was as pure as the water itself. The scent of the earth calmed her, and other scents came to her as she entered meditation.  
She decided to check on her skills, the opening of the menu stilling the world once again, and blinked repeatedly at the very familiar layout before her.

_**Water Nature - 40** _   
_**Earth Nature - 30** _   
_**Fire Nature - 50** _   
_**Wind Nature - 40** _   
_**Lightning Nature - 25** _   
_**Yang - 45** _   
_**Yin - 50** _   
_**Summoning - 30** _   
_**Yokai - 40** _   
_**Sensing - 50** _   
_**Sealing - 30** _   
_**Medical Ninjutsu - 25** _   
_**Void - 50** _   
_**Genjutsu - 45** _   
_**Archery - 30** _   
_**Strength - 30** _   
_**Endurance - 50** _   
_**Speed - 30** _   
_**Stamina - 45** _   
_**Chakra - 100** _   
_**One-Handed - 30** _   
_**Two-Handed - 20** _   
_**Taijutsu - 25** _   
_**Charm - 35** _   
_**Thievery - 20** _   
_**Stealth - 40** _   
_**Assassination - 20** _   
_**Crafting - 20** _   
_**Passives** _   
_**Actives** _   
_**Bloodline Limits** _   
_**Unique Jutsu** _

The passives, actives, bloodline limits and unique skills was filled with previous abilities. It didn't explain the numbers though.  
 **"That shows how strong you are compared to the average ranking, or future ranking, of ninjas of this world,"** Gavin answered promptly. **"0-15 means average Genin, 16-25 means average chunin, 26-50 are average Jonin, 51-75 are Kage, 76-90 are Masters in various arts, and 91-100 are gods."**  
"Right," she said back.  
Most of those specialities or skills were jonin level, or on the verge of becoming Kage level already. Well, some of them were the low end but still, damn. Of the remaining number, seven of them were Genin, with the last being God tier.  
"What the hell Gavin?!"  
 **"It is somewhat difficult to get more levels of proficiency naturally the higher your skills."** He sounded defensive about the inclusion of this insanity. **"I have taken into account your two lineages when designing this starting point. The reason why you have very high for your age wind nature, water nature, and yang is because of your Uzumaki side. Along with those benefits is the enhanced or mildly higher starting stats of medical ninjutsu, sealing, summoning, endurance, and stamina. The Uchiha side comes with the even higher fire ninjutsu affinity, yin affinity, and genjutsu affinity. Much of your weapon skills, stealth related abilities, and the like comes from your mother's people."**  
"That's nice. But what the fuck is Void?"  
She knew what it was, or it was in video games and other fictional universes, but here she had no clue. Other than it's likely tie in to that damn sacrifical ability of hers.  
 **"Like a few other skills like Crafting and Thievery, Void is a combination of abilities, skills and talents that only a select few could use. In particular, the Void involves darkness manipulation, shadow manipulation, soul manipulation, necromancy, blood manipulation and other related skills."**  
That is most assuredly not the most broken thing ever.  
 **"If it is any consolation, these skills carry over and change over time."**  
 _It really doesn't help..._  
She sighed and shook her head. Her gaze moved over the still world without much of a care. "How do I increase my prowess in a skill once it reaches the halfway mark?"  
Gavin was hesitant since he spoke in a slow, carefully chosen manner. **"There are a few ways. Practicing, using them in everyday mundane tasks and in combat would steadily, if slowly, increase them. Training with others and having a mentor helps. Sacrificing others, killing or being near the dead and dying would boost them dramatically, though some might be temporary buffs. Making choices and decisions when certain ranks are reached help make you a more specialized person. Forming bonds and making deals or covenants with others unlocks more potential powers while influencing those you befriend."**  
 _That's unusual._  
"So when am I going to properly learn hand seals and jutsu?"  
 **"You aren't."**  
She frowned deeply, her eyebrows furrowing in confusion. "What?" She asked incredulously.  
The world resumed it's normal speed when Gavin forced her to exit the screens. The last thing the bastard said was that the tanuki would teach her.  
The scent of the forest and the earth, centered herself as she turned to the mildly annoyed tanuki himself.  
Then in the most dull, emotionless tone she had experienced yet said, "What?"

-

Yokai.  
She was going to learn how yokai fight and use chakra like they did instead of how normal humans did. She wasn't learning normal jutsu or hand signs or anything!  
 _What the actual fuck?!_  
Seishi looked on top of her head, her hands, her feet, into her eyes, glanced at her snarl and the teeth there, paid attention to her bare flesh due to the black sleeveless training top and shorts, and stared at her butt.  
All of that took a handful of seconds but it was unnerving.  
The scent of blood and sand tickled her nose as she stared back at him with stubbornness. A shiver ran down her spine, more wonder than fear, as the green eyes turned into the far more familiar eyes of Shukaku. The sandy blond hair remained but became lighter like the sands of his long time homeland, and he became more lean and willowy compared to how. The infamous markings covered his visible flesh and he grinned in a blood thirsty manner.  
"It's great to be around someone who knows who I really am," the revealed tanuki said with glee. "You can see my true self, and the rest of yokai or unnatural phenomenon but you have yet to see how it affects you."  
She didn't know why she had to say this but decided to trust her instinct that she should. "Do I need to remind you about the pecking order?"  
All the bravado Shukaku or the formerly known as Seishi had was bluster since the aggressive and insane one tail calmed down and had this harsh grimace on his aesthetically pleasing face.  
"That's unneeded, brat."  
She snorted at the response and stood up, walked over to the waters edge and looked into it. Below the clear surface, she saw fish swimming without a care  
Suddenly the cry of a human baby echoed from the underbrush near her and she laughed. Her sharp gaze moved to what looked like a small giggling red-skinned baby. It reminded her faintly of a kappa and with that distinction Sakuya guessed it was an Kawa Akago, or river baby.   
They were more mischievous than dangerous or obviously dangerous. If a human had wandered down to the river’s edge, the kawa akago would retreat further into the underbrush and call out again. This would have continued with the yōkai leading its victim further and further into the river. Finally, it would have sneaked up under the unsuspecting human, pull his legs out from under him, and send him tumbling into the river. People have drowned during this prank.   
With a flick of her wrist, a narrow and condensed blue flames formed into three thin blades that sliced through the underbrush without completely destroying the dried plants. A high pitched shriek came from the tiny, insignificant yokai as it swam away in fear.  
A twisted smile grew on her lips as she enjoyed the fact something reacted to what she did. Her dark eyes glimmered with fascination at how easy it was to picture the flames then control them. Her heart sped up at the joy of doing this so simply.  
"Is this how yokai use chakra?" Sakuya asked. She didn't even look at the tanuki she was addressing. No, her eyes were firmly on her own reflection.  
The large frame for a child of three, the pure white shoulder length fluffy hair, the moon pale skin tone, the wide twisted grin of happiness and the blood drenched eyes were all familiar to her by now. It was the things that were there in her reflection that shouldn't be there that caught her attention.  
Two white fox ears adorned the top of the reflection's head, twisting and flicking at the slightest sound. Her teeth, and more specifically her canines, were far sharper and pointed in the water. More animalistic. The tips of her fingernails were claws made to slice others apart, and her eyes were slitted and feral. Nine white tails moved around her without disturbing the water.  
It had to be an illusion. There was no way she was a fox but...  
Without her knowing it, her hand reached down toward the water and the reflection reached for her as well.  
It gave her a strange sense of clarity, of a goal aside from surviving, and that was to make the unquestionable, unstoppable raw power the Yokai version of her had displayed a reality. The reality.  
She would never need to fear anyone ever again with that kind of presence. No one could hurt her, or get away with it. She could be loved, feared, respected and worshipped.  
At the very least, she would have the affection and attention she truly craved and was denied prior to her rebirth.  
A sound of a rock passing through the air, forced her to jump back as a stone the size of her head hit the water and destroyed her image. It was still enough to create a decision of her future goals.  
"Most yokai do. Many use their environments before using chakra to create the element, others use a combination of both." Sei-, Shukaku, said in a distracted manner. He looked at where the altered reflection once was with a strange gaze then shook it off. "Yokai don't use hand signs at all, preferring to do jutsu or their version of it, naturally and instinctively. In fact, most of the time they try to use hand signs or conventional seals, it backfires or doesn't work at all. They rely on their environment and their own powers, and because of that learned how to apply it in different ways."  
"Neat."  
Shukaku seemed to be regretting meeting her, and he rubbed the bridge of his nose. "The easiest elemental nature to start with is water since-"  
"Water fight!"  
"Water what?"  
Shukaku learned what when he was suddenly blasted with a wave of water.  
Sakuya fell to her knees, clutching her stomach as unstoppable laughter spilled from her at the sight. Joy filled her at pulling one over the ancient tanuki.  
"I like you."  
She stopped laughing and looked up at him, only to see a vicious grin and a slight twitch to his unique eyes. A rough, coarse substance wrapped itself around her leg, and the moment she looked down to see the sand, she was thrown into the air.  
"Now swim bitch."  
Slowing down the wind as she fell toward the water was easy. Cushioning the air was easy too. Cushioning the water...not so much.  
Several loud cracks, sharp pain, and her body rejecting said pain and injuries, the young girl shot out of the water and focused on the vast amount of water around her. With a few mental images, and a single swirl of her body, Sakuya created a whirlpool-like pillar of water. The pillar's constantly shifting and coiling movements resembled a giant snake of water protecting the lower body, elevating her from the surface of the water.  
She was above much of the nearby canopy line and looked over the top of the trees in awe. It was a damn good thing that she never had a fear of heights.  
 _I seem to have become a water bender,_ Sakuya thought with a noticeable tinge of hysteria to her thoughts. Shaking her head then looking down to the shore, she glowered at the tanuki.  
"You done fucked up," she told Shukaku.  
The tanuki blinked incomprehensibly at the comment.   
The three year old made a sharp upward movement with both of her pale arms and rose the water around her up. She kept it there for a moment.  
"Don't you-"  
A short, dismissive motion of her hand sent the wave of water to sweep over the shore and force the past to stumble. At the last moment, Shukaku raised a wall of earth and sand mixture to shield himself as she recalled the wave.  
Slowly, the shield cracked and a pissed off but excited eye peeked out. "You want to play? I'll bleed you out brat!"  
Sakuya looked at him with disdain, or like she was staring at trash. That was due to the known fact it would infuritate Shukaku and force him to move. Her words were only the icing in the cake. "I think we both know who would win. Unfortunately for you, I don't want any of your blood within me. I don't want anything of you inside me."  
For some reason, that was enough to trigger the tanuki and cause her to learn another lesson.   
Later that evening, once things had settled down, the lesson would be known as: Do not taunt the tanuki.

-

Whirling and swaying with the water, the red haired girl defended herself against the far weaker attacks of water, moderately strong earth and extreme gusts of wind. The later of the two forced her to learn how to change the pressure of the water to protect herself against the rage fueled rocks and tangible blades of wind.  
It took more time than she wanted it to, but Sakuya had managed to freeze most of the water that she turned into whips and claws attached to her water armor into sharp ice. It was easier to heat up the water into steam, mist or fog but it was harder to freeze it for her. Lowering the temperature of the water was not an instantaneous effect, but actively took her making it drop. A part of her suspected that if she was from the Yuki clan, had a higher proficiency level or was taught how to do this specifically, it would happen in a few blinks of the eye.  
 _Nobody is perfect. This is just another way to improve myself._  
It was then, after hours of constant fighting, that her body started to fail her. Even if she had incredible prowess with chakra and these kinds of things it didn't mean anything if she was too tired to move.   
The body of a three year old, even ones from the Naruto universe who were unnaturally strong and could use chakra practically from birth it seemed, tired easily.  
The whooshing sound of a small rock passing through the air was all the warning she got before the water spout collapsed. Water splashed back down and Sakuya pummeted until she was caught by a clawed hand made from sand.  
The sand hand carried her over and raised her to eye level with him. It forced her exhausted head up and with great resentment she stared into smug golden eyes.   
"Do you have anything to say for yourself?"  
A sardonic grin, made solely to belittle the tanuki for his win plastered itself on her face, and her already wide and expressive eyes grew larger to show how little she cared. "I'm the Avatar and you gotta deal with it!"  
Before she could get enough energy to move and send flames into his face, the sound of rapid movement coming from behind and to the side of her her clued her in that others were watching.  
She smelled the sea, and felt the frozen intensity of snow and the deep depths of the oceans from the closest onlooker and knew it was one of her two targets.  
The sudden spike of chakra was unexpected however.  
"Is that-" Sakuya's words were cut off as she was tackled with enough pressured water to break the bones of adults.  
On the plus side, the sand was knocked off her by the time she hit the tree.  
It was at that moment that Tobirama knew he fucked up.

-

Shukaku shrugged, swirling the cup of green tea lazily before taking a sip. The burning sensation paled to the glares he was getting from the papa wolf, mama bear and the even more serious than normal Tajima.  
It was after dinner and the adults were discussing what happened earlier that day while the three children of the main house were doing dishes in the next room. The reason why the tanuki was given the stink eye was for three reasons: he thrashed the little girl through training for hours on end; said girl was 'saved' by Tobirama Senju; and Tobirama Senju and Sakuya started to argue with each other which ended up with them deciding to return to that point a few times a week to try and show off or some nonsense.  
"You intended for her to infiltrate other clans, factions and communities from the beginning," Shukaku pointed out. "Having her befriend and form a one sided rivalry on his part with Tobirama, one of the most suspicious and prideful people in the other major clans, would only be beneficial for what you intend to do."  
Killing Intent oozed out of the kitchen and the sound of glass breaking echoed within the room. The faint sound of wind and water moving stopped when the glass broke.  
Izuna's chakra spiked in worry. "This is why I told you not to try to do the dishes while manipulating water and wind!"  
His comment went unnoticed by the other children, though Hisato was chuckling at that and Koria just sighed at the typical antics of her family.  
"That pompous, prideful little shit! I'll show him. Thinks he can one up me! I'll defile everything he loves!"  
The oddly chipper homicidal rage in a three year olds voice would of been unsettling if it was any other clan, and if he wasn't as unstable and bloodthirsty.  
"Good girl," Madara almost purred in sadistic glee. "Let the hate flow through you."  
"Fuck off, you must."  
Shukaku laughed in a more stable fashion at the rude comment that the obviously affectionate towards her omnicidal maniac clearly didn't expect her to say given the fleeting flash of alarm in his chakra.  
 _Oh yes,_ the tanuki thought. _This is going on be fun._  
"The Senju spawn doesn't suspect her true allegiances?" Tajima asked. The clan head was silent as he went over the possible pros and cons of this uncanny luck, and his resolute words seemed to hint that he would allow this rivalry without interference as long as it was beneficial to them and they didn't doubt her.  
Shukaku smirked. "Not at all. It helps that they believe she is a ward or pupil of mine and would be joining me in my travels. My neutral status to the conflicts of you humans is applied to her as well." The smirk dropped as he became serious for a change. "Most of you pests don't think much about civilians so maybe you don't know this but about a week south from here at a civilian's run, there is a large city. It is ruled by nine families who return there every few years and governs the rest of this continent with an iron fist. I don't particularly care what you humans do to one another, but since Sakuya will no doubt be caught into their slaving, hedonistic, mass murdering, schemes you should be aware of what is happening to the world outside of the endoess wars of ninja."  
The sounds of the children cleaning up the mess and their friendly bickering proved they were busy with those chores to focus on the discussions.  
The tanuki told the three adults what he had heard of them along with his own interactions with them before informing them about an even greater threat.   
"Common yokai, good and bad, are often separated into the weak or cannon fodder, moderate, and strong rankings with a wide range of variety in power between each ranking." Shukaku downed the last of the tea in a single gulp and put the cup down with more harshness than necessary. "There are the rare yokai who are far stronger, older and intelligence than most. They decided to give themselves the rank of nobles, glorifying in their status over lesser yokai. The lesser in their eyes obey them out of fear and respect, serving as their tools and satisfying their needs. Above them stands the seven rulers, whose power and control is godly compared to even nobles."  
Tajima and Koria left to tend to their own remaining duties for the day, leaving Hisato Uzumaki alone with Seishi.  
The Uzumaki looked toward the kitchen, concern and worry for his hellspawn etched into his face and posture, and when he turned back to Shukaku the truth of the matter behind this con  
Hisato frowned, a dark look to his expression as he understood what was being said. "You believe Sakuya might be considered a threat to these leaders? For both the civilian families and these yokai rulers?"  
"Perhaps," the tanuki said evasively. "Humans don't believe in yokai like they used too, and can't see or sense the truth around them. But there is a world coexisting alongside humanity, as you well know. Most people can only see outlines of yokai and spirits or the lingering traces of them. Your lovely wife, nephew Izuna and Tajima are like that. The rest of the clan outside the main house is even worse, godless bastards."  
Hisato chuckled in a nervous manner. "Madara and Sakuya are different then?"  
"Likely due to his own circumstances, and the closeness he has with Sakuya, Madara can see most of the truth of this world. Not all of it, not by a long shot, but enough to see yokai and yurei and fight them on equal footing if it came to that. His sight will become stronger than yours, in time." Shukaku said. "What is concerning is the girl."  
The red haired man straightened up now that his daughter was brought up. In his pupiless black eyes glimmered the threat of violence. "Why?"  
"The first kind of people, the majority of this world, see me as a normal wandering monk. People with limited sight to the truth see me as an ordinary tanuki and still a wandering monk with the name of Seishi. Sakuya sees the entirety of the truth if this world, more than humans or yokai rulers alike, and could see my true appearance and said my original name. Even at a tender age, she is more powerful than most nobles could ever even dream of, and she is still human. The rulers, the royals would be interested in this human that might rival them sooner than they ever had anyone else do in their five centuries of reigning over the rest of the Yokai kind. And since humans as a race are generally weaker than common yokai, you can see where I'm going with this."  
Shukaku had let some of his bloodlust show, his true nature on display for the first time before one of his former pupils, and he didn't care. Excitement and a growing bloodlust for the conflicts to come radiated off of in his chakra and the bloodthirsty and starving inhuman grin on his face.  
"I believe the lesson we can all learn here is not to take short cuts with washing dishes." Sakuya said, her childish voice breaking the growing tension with it's determination.  
"We are dead! Koria is going to kill us." Izuna yelled, panic entering his voice.  
Madara, for likely the first time in his existence, was the voice of reason for the trio. Shukaku found that ironic. "Well, we are dead. Sakuya will remain unaffected since Koria loves her more than she does us now."  
"Thanks for pointing out the obvious Gaydara! Any other riveting reveals," Izuna sarcastically asked.  
Shukaku watched as the cause of the fighting lipped out of the kitchen into the dining room and approached the two adults there. In her hands were shards of broken glass, remnants from some dishware.  
"I broke it," she admitted. It was an obvious thing but it had to be said. "I was using wind and water with a little fire to move, rinse and dry the dishes. I lost control over it and dropped it." She glanced back at where the loud brotherly arguing was heard and returned her gaze to them. It was mischievous. "I predict five minutes from now, they will be at each other's throats, shouting insults, and carrying around a clan member's head on a stick."  
Shukaku nodded, a pleased gleam to his eyes. "Good. It was starting to become too friendly and peaceful here for me. I was about to fight or kill something for any kind of excitement before this happened." He pushed his teacup closer to the confused father. "Pour me another cup."

-

Pain shot through her shoulder as she was pulled from the game and forced back into the real world. Vision fuzzy, and feeling like she was going to be sick, Samantha looked up into her cousin's face as best she could and recoiled at the raw rage on her face.  
"I... I-" she stammered, looking down at her shoulder where the death grip was, she followed that to her cousin's boytoy who was shaking her for a while.  
"I told you not to be in this room anymore! You have your own!"  
"Your dog keeps on breaking them down and entering my room. I'm always with it when you leave it on the ground floor for the night and am attacked and actively hurt by that nuisance! And everything it breaks down my door it attacks my cats too! I was going crazy in that room so I came out here since the dog and you guys were out and-"  
"You bitch." The male said. She never learned his name despite the years living in this hell because he, like her cousin, were abusive and she didn't want to deal with either of them. The constant fighting from them, the cheating on one another, and other chaos had made any chance of entering a relationship further down the line pointless at seeing and being on the receiving end of their tantrums. "How dare you say that about Lady!"  
Her blood ran cold as a chilly clarity filled her. Her senses sharpened and with a confidence that she would never had possessed prior to these adventures said, "Get your filthy hands off me, fuck boy. Your only function in this household is to come in every few weeks, screw her and then leave the next day. You don't live here, and you rarely visit aside from doing that or wanting money."  
The coldness grew as she forcibly removed his hand from her, quickly snapping it at the wrist. A scream was ripped from his throat as he clutched the broken hand to his chest and glowered at her.  
"I'll kill you!"  
"You will try," Sam said in a detached, knowing manner. She dismissed his existence entirely to focus on her cousin Agatha. "And you cousin should have asked me about the dog before it moved in. I haven't been around dogs for decades, and then being wounded by that barking pest dozens of times a day did not endear me further to it or you."  
"Why should I tell you anything?! This is my house!" Agatha yelled.  
Sam's eyes narrowed in distaste, as she did her best to ignore the triggers growing from the touch and being screamed at.  
"I am renting only two rooms while also taking care of most of the bills. I deserve the right to know this or have a choice." She said calmly.  
 _This is not going to end well._  
It wasn't the first time she was viciously abused or yelled at by her or any of her family. It was a regular thing from her earliest moments of childhood. In fact, the only reason why she wasn't a gibbering mess of a girl was the detached emotional state she was currently in.  
"That can be fixed."  
There was no warning, no sign. Just one moment it was an argument and the next she was sprawled out on the floor in the fetal position. Blows rained down her body and the coldness was exchanged for fear and desperation.  
It was a long time since anyone hurt her this bad. Physically at least. The biggest difference between this and the last time, is these two didn't care about not leaving marks or proof of the damage.  
With her lifetime of surviving mental, emotional and physical abuse, one would think she would have had experience with stab wounds or broken bones. She had none, since those who hurt her body were careful not to leave much more than faint bruises or only hurt her where places were covered by clothing.  
There was a crunching sound, and her hand pulsed with acute pain. It was hard for her to feel pain since she had always had lower than average sensitivity to stimuli. But she felt it.  
"Don't look at it."  
She covered her head, more to hide herself from the boiling rage in Madara's voice than anything else.  
Behind her folded arms shielding her face, she saw the glint of a very sharp knife. All she could do was focus on it as it slowly descended.  
"Tell me... Have you ever thought of familicide?"  
Thoughts of killing them, of escaping the abuse at all costs had been a near constant of her life but she couldn't do it. Even now, she couldn't.  
She was pushed onto her back and she stared unseeingly at the knife. Above the twisted, insane faces of the cardboard and empty people she was forced to spend her life being subservient to was two frowning men. One had blond hair and furious eyes like a frozen over lake and the other had shaggy hair the color of her blood spilling out and disturbed golden eyes.  
The two masterminds of this game.  
"How could this happen? Did she have no say?" Gavin uttered.  
"We both knew it would end this way," Royce countered. His usual sadistic grin was replaced by a scowl.  
 _I'm more angry at this point about them singing as I'm being killed by a family member and her toy._  
"You're not happy so let's you and me, have some fun. One on One."  
 _I continued to fool myself, thirsting for revenge only in secret. But what I truly wanted was to be free of them... Even if their lives had to be taken to allow me to breath._  
As the kitchen knife pierced her torso, she was knocked out.

-

Brief flashes of consciousness came and went but they were filled with images she couldn't understand. Blood splatter on walls, a sticky substance on her hands, the smell of smoke...  
Dozens of pain filled faces fused together in the rush before vanishing. Throughout it all there was a sense of satisfaction, of glee, and there were no negative impressions to the fleeting scenes. She felt good, better than she had in a long time. Or ever.  
Each time that realization appeared she was eased into unconsciousness again. It was done with such gentleness that she almost wanted to stay in the Blissful black nothingness and rest.

-

Near the burning cabin, standing just within the forests end and shielded by trees, was a blood soaked young woman. Dried blood clung to her white hair and across her pale face, marring the current feral beauty. The old, worn clothing was damaged beyond repair by the dozen stab wounds littering it, but amazingly the visible skin was untouched and clean.  
Sadistic gratification shown in the eyes that were the color of the blood covering her body as it took in the sight of her long time abusers, those she trusted and failed her in the worst ways, and the few who took her body for their own enjoyment.  
And by her watching them all burn, it was him.  
Madara had taken over her once he finally realized she was too traumatized to do anything, let alone fight back. In the span of a single blink, he had ripped the blade from her, his, their, stomach and gutted the man who did it before standing up. He grabbed a hold of the woman's hair, the so-called relative, and dragged her behind him to his warden and prison's room.  
Upon blasting the door off it's hinges, he saw the two animals she was fond of were taken care of by these two.   
He would likely need to lie about what happened to the two animals if she asked. Her fondness for them was sickening, but given they were the only ones who gave her positive affection and attention or noticed her at all, it was understandable.  
"You monster!"  
The grip around the hair moved to the neck and squeezed it with enough pressure to damage the vocal cords. He slowly looked away from the sliced bodies of the two cats to the annoying woman.  
"I suppose I should show you how monstrous I can be."

He finished off the woman, deciding not to take his time with any of them and after slaughtering the hound that hurt her to the point of being afraid of such a pathetic kind of mongerel, burned the house down.  
He did say that he wouldn't browse through her memories, but this was an emergency.  
Walking away from the murder scene, the killer went through all the memories he could access before realizing something that actually bothered him. Almost everything from when she was in born to eighteen years old was suppressed to the point she couldn't even recall what happened.  
Digging through even a few of the least buried memories hinted that she was conditioned to behave in certain ways since she was five. The fact she was highly intelligent, more than most adults, no doubt worsened this since she realized what her mother, her few friends and her entire family was doing but couldn't word properly due to her mental condition. The experimentation, the therapy, being pushed to take drugs and medication that made her more unstable and definitely more suicidal was an eye opener.  
As was her views of death and how easy it was to get over them. It helped when she didn't think they were real since they just echoed the same lines back to her, and reacted the same way. Empty shells with no real substance, that was the real world and its humanity in her eyes.  
He decided to confront the rest of the people who started this weakness in her. As long as he was bound to her, this would never happen again. He would make certain of that.

It took a week to find everyone that knew of her and affected her in this way, and another five days to remove all traces of her existence from this world. Her creations did the work of the later half once he brought up the fact that their darling Creator would be considered a kin Slayer or at least the number one suspect otherwise. He did not do all this just for her to be killed by the idiotic world.

The scent of burning flesh soon became too strong for him and he walked into the forest.  
With that, the last traces of her existence vanished from the real world.

-

In the eery library, Madara watched as the young version of the girl from the so called game slept before him. She was resting on a burgundy day sofa, slumbering even in her mind after the most basic trigger was pulled, blissfully aware of what happened. A small peaceful smile rested on her face, and the man wondered what she was dreaming.  
Like many things since he accepted the deal, he learned not to ask how one might dream and sleep in their own mind.  
Scratches underneath the mirrored floor section of the library brought his attention to the clawing darkness he suspected suppressed her memories among other things. Eyes in hundreds of colors formed as claws and hands scrapped at the underside of the glass to try and reach the dozing girl near it.  
It wasn't dangerous or harmful to her, but that didn't mean he was safe.  
For lack of a better option, he returned to watching her sleep. The ghost heavily suspected that if she was aware of his gaze, she would have called him a stalker or worse.  
A faint smile settled on his own face at the machinations that they were up against, when he felt another blast of phatom pain in his chest. The urge to roll his eyes at their overdramatic threats was almost overwhelming.  
He hadn't changed or was affected. In his mind, everything he did was expected and correct when it involved...  
The distant dark stone fireplace started up again, and the books were slowly placing themselves back on the shelves. Other signs of order returned as the library brightened up and the dismal blood moon outside reverted to a pale white hue.  
It's light caressed the slumbering girl into awareness and she opened her eyes with great reluctance. Those soothing red eyes stared into his dark gaze and the lingering rage from the willful ignorance of the masses was wiped away.  
He didn't understand that, but the pain in his chest hinted this was not acceptable.  
"So the sleeping princess finally woke up," he lightly teased much to his own surprise. He became serious as he looked over her form. "How are you feeling?"  
"Yes! I feel like a weight has been lifted from me," Sam...Sakuya said.  
She was now whoever she was in the Other World. The old her is gone forever. She was free.  
"That's good. You should return to the game. Give the cum haired moron hell."  
"Are you okay, Madara?" She hesitated before reaching out to him. "You seem off."  
Without another word, she vanished from her mental realm for the other world. In her place was a series of floating screens situated in front of the bone throne and nearly encircling it. Totaling about forty screens or reflections, the devices showed various locations and people in a third person perspective. About five of them depicted stats like her abilities but it was the one tauntingly placed in front of throne and eye level to him when he sat down, that really annoyed him.  
The bonds and connections she had with others was displayed along with how they viewed her in turn.  
Seeing Tobirama as one of her closest bonds so far, along with the taunting words of one of those two bastards hinting at friendship or worse made him see red. Red that had nothing to do with the Sharingan.  
"As punishment for stealing her away from reality, and having her sever all ties with the real world, you will be on standby and serve as her conscious or a stray thought. From here, you will witness everything that happens until the next life, and be unable to speak to her of that or interfere.  
His fate sealed for the moment by the latest insane punishment, Madara decided to watch the other screens for answers to what to look out for.  
His gaze landed on an odd meeting, one that he knew she would never know about.

 


	5. Blue Blood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Politics... Politics never change.

Madara glanced at a screen next to the board meeting and saw a great deal of information regarding this location.

 _**Hinoiri was a sturdy city in the southernmost section of the Land of Fire and with a population of just over 300,000 citizens.** _  
_**It had started as a overly large ruined city covered by forests and plant life roughly five hundred years ago, devoid of all sentient life except for a lone human or yokai that passed by. Nobody knew what had happened in Hinoiri´s past and probably never would since the details had been lost in history.** _  
_**It would have remained a ghost town until this day if it hadn´t been for an invaluable discovery. The event that got Hinoiri to flourish was made by a fellowship of brave men and women that dared to enter the forested ruins in their search for riches, treasure, knowledge and gold. After some struggle in the wilderness and the deaths of one of the members, they found their fortune.** _  
_**A cavern attached to the still intact temple in the back of the crumbling city contained a seemingly endless supply of various jewels and diamonds that would make a mere mortal richer than a daimyo. In addition to the raw jewels, manuscripts on potions and poisons among other more occult practices were discovered. The natural environment was filled with herbs, plants, stones, ore and were absolutely crowded with creatures that could be hunted down and used for materials.** _  
_**This discovery had been unheard of until they managed to stumble back to the closest tavern and celebrated it loud and clear.** _  
_**The rumor of the endless wealth in the south drove hundreds of gold diggers there. Rulers and lords, both human and yokai, from all over wanted a share of it. The Temple of Light heard of it and the blue-blooded politicians went through discussions within Hinode to finance expeditions to find the rich or and gems hidden underneath it all. It was dangerous times since the malicious yokai and the yurei still roamed the lands at large and multiple requests were sent to the Black Mirror, a company and charity that was affiliated and protected by the god Jashin, for escorts and yokai specialists and mediators who could work between the humans and the local monstrosities.** _  
_**The Black Mirror knew that the continent and the world needed a stable economy and the mines and other rich resources would bring in more funds into their pockets. Since the common people would have it difficult to build a settlement close to the endless supplies of the ruined nation, they decided to risk a rather large investment.** _  
_**The Board decided to rebuild the largest city they knew about from ancient records.** _  
_**A representative of the Black Mirror was sent to Hinode nestled into the mountains on the border of the Land of Frost and the Land of Lightning which was the seat of religious power and always has been for as far as humans could remember. Representatives from all parts of the continent had assembled to claim the rights to the treasures of Hiroiri and the Land of Fire. Even landlords who only wanted to increase their own power were there as well. The ones who would judge and decide the rights was the Temple of Light Council. They all knew that a new settlement was needed to provide a supply line for the diamonds but none of the lords wanted to invest that much money and take the risk.** _  
_**The Black Mirror's representative presented the solution as he said that the Black Mirror would be willing to rebuild a city from the ruins, all on their own funds and the landlords would not need to spend a single bit of their riches. This suggestion was presented with great suspicion as the question of what the Black Mirror wanted in return.** _  
_**To their surprise, the Black Mirror discarded the right to anything. They didn´t even want to have anything to do with it and reminded them that they were a charity, and not a mining operation.** _  
_**No, it had simply been on two conditions that they would rebuild Hinoiri.** _  
_**One, the new city of Hinoiri would allow the Black Mirror´s connections, the Jashin priesthood and so on to move freely within and around it, which was acceptable.** _  
_**Two, the city of Hinode had to give away every unwanted child it had to the Black Mirror. Just at that time and as "payment" for the investment.** _  
_**This had nearly caused uproar as The Temple of Light Council saw this as a crime against the holy laws of Tengan. It would have been cruel and blasphemous to give innocent children over to the being who governed abominations, deceit, conspiracy, treachery, sedition, lies, murder, ritualistic sacrifice, blood, death, sacrifice, secrets, and plots. In their eyes, the children would never know the salvation Tengan's loving glow would give them.** _  
_**The representative had reminded them that it would be cruel to the children to stay in poverty and misery in Hinode, and that since they had the room and resources to take care of those that had been abandoned by the holy city and lift the burden of the Holy Council´s shoulders, there was no real reason why they should hesitate.** _  
_**The landlords agreed with the Black Mirror as they saw it as a real bargain. To be able to access the resources easily AND get rid of a couple of hundred nobodies? To them it was already settled.** _  
_**The Holy Council had to give in due to the fact that the landlords provided generous donations to the temple. It would have been unfortunate to see those vanish from the Council's hands.** _  
_**The Black Mirror got four hundred forty-six children to their cause.** _  
_**Pleased with the reserves, they immediately sent their construction team lead by the master architect of the time and began the construction.** _  
_**Fifteen years later, Hinoiri had been rebuilt even better than it had been before its mysterious downfall.** _  
_**It was large enough to hold a population up to five hundred thousand people and thanks to the Black Mirror, constructed to hold off high ranked yokai far better than any other town at the time. A high outer wall existed that kept everything unwanted out. It was five meters thick and twenty meters high, with pointy triangular parapets over the top edge as extra defense. There were four gates that served as entrance and exits for the people who would live there, both to ease the export and import and to make sure that nobody would raid it in the middle of the night. A number of keeps for the guard force had been constructed as well along with armories for the guards.** _  
_**The city had been rebuilt completely with houses, stores and even several town squares. To prevent yokai and ninja from simply jumping over or running up the wall and landing inside, all roofs had been made with pointy spikes along the top. They were also constructed so the sides tilted in such narrow angles that nothing could regain a foothold on them. There was also no space for invaders to land on the ground either as the alleys and streets had been made just large enough for people to travel them. For even the most dexterous people, these streets would quickly become narrowed and made any fast moments impossible. The city of Hinoiri had been constructed as a city filled with fox-traps that made the possible attackers exposed and easier to defeat once inside the city.** _  
_**There was even a fortress for the newly assigned Lord of Hinoiri, a man by the name of Shigeru Amachi who was one of the fellowship members that used his newfound wealth buy himself a title.** _  
_**At the announcement that there was now a city in reach of the rich south, plenty of miners, researchers, adventurers and workers moved in with their families in the new town. The first decision had been to create a durable guard force of five thousand strong and durable trained ninja and samurai to guard the walls of Hinoiri. Armed in thick flexible armor and modern and chakra, these brave people would hold the city and the explorations of the nearby ruins.** _  
_**As the rights of the resources went to the fellowship who ruled in the castle like royalty, the well-being of Hinoiri flourished as the first export of high quality gems and plants were shipped out. The opportunity to get rich in Hinoiri from the excellent business there drove blacksmiths, tailors and merchants to the city and increased the population further.** _  
_**It lasted for another ten years until the first pissed off sentient yokai showed up to attack the town for disrespecting the past.** _  
_**The guard force only knew how to deal with bandits, animals and the lowest level of yurei and yokai and sent word to the Black Mirror to deal with it.** _  
_**The Fellowship got the problem solved, but realized afterwards that the fee was ten times more expensive from what it usually had been in the rest of the continent. They would have protested but with their eyes blinded by the endless wealth and with the threat of complete abandonment from the Black Mirror, they had no choice but to pay the fee with reluctant smiles. The attacks went on in a monthly basis and each time they had to pay for the Black Mirror´s protection, while they still had the normal problems to deal with.** _  
_**While the Black Mirror wasn't behind the attacks, Hinode and the Temple of Light spited the Jashin backed city. It had made sure that the city of Hinoiri would be depended on their services for a long time to come and with the gold from the diamonds in their pockets, increased their funds tenfold as well.** _  
_**It had been a wise investment as this had allowed them to experiment further and been able to fight back against the oppressive Temple of Light.** _  
_**Since then, Hinoiri had a stable economy and exported more than just jewelry and plants to the rest of the continent. The local specialties such as the fire-cherries and elemental stones were also a good source of an income.** _  
_**The government of Hinoiri was ruled by a nine people. The highest official had the title of Lord, and this was title that got inherited to those that came from a direct bloodline of the original Lord Amachi. Most political affairs were discussed monthly as the wealth of Hinoiri was where the heirs of the Fellowship tried to stay rich and powerful.** _  
_**But greed and corruption had begun to spread in this city, and the heirs own battle to become king of the hill had begun to reach vicious levels.** _  
_**The rich were on top and the peasants and poor people were oppressed and used.** _

Madara made a mental note of that insanity before messing with the screen. After pressing it, he accidentally sent the information to her mind proper, and it was added to her memories.  
He shook his head and returned his full attention to the meeting screen. It had shifted to an overweight man in silver robes running down some hallways instead.

-

Meanwhile at the center of the Fortress in the middle of Hiroiri, a man in silver clad robes walked down the long hallway that was illuminated by torches.  
The man was definitely pushing a midlife crisis, evident from the amount of wrinkles around his eyes. His brownish hair had begun to creep away from the front of his skull. The strands had soaked up the sweat in his forehead from the run through the fortress.  
_Why wasn't I told about this? I'm a member of the Fellowship right? Then how dare they start a meeting without me! It´s an outrage! I will have someone´s head for this. And why this meeting even called!?_  
He reached the large double doors and prayed that he wasn´t too late. On the other side, several voices could be heard.  
"The situation needs…"  
"Why did we have to summon…"  
"In the way…"  
"…are you certain?"  
He pushed one of them inwards and wheezed out, "WAIT!"  
Inside the room, ten figures sat in the shadows on a chair each by a large vertical table and they turned their heads towards him. These people where the most powerful individuals in Hiroiri and the rulers of it.  
The Heirs of the Fellowship.  
One of them remarked with great mockery.  
"Oh, look! Lord Gato finally decided to show up! We were about to start without you."  
Gato coughed and tried to get some air into his pounding chest, a result from the years of a cramped and secluded lifestyle. He looked up and provided a toxic look as he walked over and slid down on his seat.  
"Keep your mouth shut. Why wasn´t I told about this meeting?"  
Another of the shadows spoke to him in a cold voice. "We did send a messenger. Three hours ago."  
"I wasn´t told about it! So don´t try to come up with excuses!"  
"Just admit that you were lazy."  
"I was NOT!"  
The sound of a heel that hit the table silenced them all and the attention was diverted towards two people at the far end of it.  
Two people waited patiently on a chair each, a man and a woman. They looked different from all the others in the room in their clothing since they were the only ones in the room that didn´t wear the silver robes.  
The man looked rather impatient as he sat with his arms crossed and both legs crossed on the table while he leaned back in his chair. He wore a dark leather vest that just hung wide open and didn´t seem to do anything to keep him cool. He also had a pair of dark pants that also seemed to be made of leather and kept his feet in bandages. The dark brown hair laid flat on his head and a single lock of hair stood out at the base of his neck. He looked rather annoyed as he stared at them with his deep sapphire blue eyes.  
"Just keep quiet! And-"  
He was silenced when the woman next to him touched his left arm with the sleeve covering her right arm and hand.  
The woman in question appeared to be a shorter than the man with silver eyes and seemed to be the same age as him. Her small body was clad in an odd white kimono that couldn't be adapted for the comfortably warm weather of the Land of Fire. It had long thick sleeves that continued well over a foot, and the obi was a solid black. From behind her back, one could see the handle to a weapon of unknown nature.  
She spoke in an authorized and somehow more reasonable voice. "Joji, that´s enough. You got their attention."  
Joji ogled with his eyes in her direction and obediently kept his mouth shut after a single phrase, "Yes, Ikune."  
Ikune withheld from lowering her hand and sighed as she put both her hands in her lap instead. The others in the room found her presence and dominating aura of a predator with bleeding prey before it, a little eerie and most of all, unsettling.  
She looked down at the rest of the Fellowship and showed a pleased smile on her face. One that made them all move their chairs a little bit further from her.  
"Now that everyone´s here... On the behalf of the Seven Yokai Rulers, I hereby declare this annual meeting started."

-

None of the nine humans around the table dared to say a word at Ikune's announcement and threw a couple of suspicious looks at each other. It was quite common among the aristocrats of Hiroiri to never let their guard down in the presence of their competitors. This could be even considered expected among the Fellowship, which after centuries of luxury and power, had become nothing more than a bunch of vultures over a cadaver. There lives were a constant battle where everyone wanted what the other had to increase their own influence solely for the sake of power.

-

Madara decided to keep an eye on the changing scrawl on the nearby screen, sending it to the mental library once he finished reading it.  
He had the feeling this was going to get annoying very quickly.

The Fellowship of Hiroiri.

  
**_Since the construction of Hiroiri had been completed, the issue with the leadership and government over it had to be solved as well. At first the Temple of Light had wanted to include it into their own rule to make certain that the words of Tengan would reach them. This suggestion had later been objected since they realized that Hiroiri had been built by the hands of the Jashin and its helpers. The Temple of Light's sacred writings also spoke that no man had the right to take what rightfully belonged to another. From these words, it was only logical that Hiroiri belonged to the men who had discovered it._ **  
**_The nine men that had defied the elements and hardships to find the well of wealth within southern Land of Fire were known as the Fellowship. These men and women from all parts of the continent and could have been considered an odd group from the start. They were Amachi from the holy city of Hinode; Mizutama and Miyake from Land of Water; Kudou, Asaka, Shimura and Gato from the Land of Fire; Fukumoto from Land of Lightning and Chiura from Land of Earth. All of them were different in both appearance and skill but each of them had the desire to live as royalty and free themselves from the shackles of a poor life or fighting every day just to survive._ **  
**_These people became the new rulers of Hiroiri and parts of the continent while they could enjoy the life of nobility they wanted all along. They all achieved the ranks of Lords and the right to grant any of their heirs this title as well._ **  
**_The Fellowship had agreed to help rule the parts of the continent they had originated from alongside the more prominent Daimyo. That meant for instance that Fukumoto would govern the human population of Land of Lightning, Chiura would help govern over the people of Land of Earth, Mizutama and Miyake would share the rule over Land of Water and the quartet from Land of Fire could govern it as they saw fit. Amachi couldn´t rule in Hinode due to the Temple of Light. Instead he became the ruler of Hiroiri and everybody else in the Fellowship had council with him when it came to dominion of their states. Each member of the Fellowship also got requests from villages and towns in their own territories to pay the fees of contractors for them. The Fellowship could decide to both help their people and countrymen and collect taxes from the villages after the requests were made._ **  
**_The Fellowship soon began to succumb to the insanity that came with their new titles and their heirs became more and more distant from their ideals._ **  
**_Paranoia, sin, desire and greed spread amongst them like a cancer and distrust could be seen in their eyes. They saw the outside world, its peasants and even the other aristocrats as enemies and acted to make life even worse for the people._ **  
**_All bloodlines from the original fellowship slowly got infected and corrupted by their own unique strand of sin. It could be seen in how the families acted towards the outside world and against each other._ **  
**_They might pretend to endure each other's company, but they all had their own agendas to become the single ruler. This ambition had been the sole reason to why they had accepted an alliance with those that had the power to eliminate the competition._ **  
**_The emissaries of the seven rulers had introduced themselves with a simple offer that would benefit all parties involved. The Aristocrats would have the means to eliminate their competitors for sovereignty over Hiroiri and the continent in return for a few favors from the group. This had been considered and accepted in all feigned well-intentions while they all plotted in secret on how easy it would be to become number one._ **

-

One of the members around the table spoke up, irritated. "Let get this over with! Start with less important matters so we won´t have to waste more time in here."  
The man in question had medium-length red hair that hanged flat down with brown eyes that just emitted annoyance over the situation.  
One of the others, a woman with her hair tied up in a bun on top of her head and a surprisingly young appearance replied with toxicity, "How interesting! Lord Kudou, what is the matter? Do you think you have better things to do?"  
Kudou answered her look with a set of narrowed eyes in frustration, like he wanted to just lash out and strangle her right there. Instead he replied in a snarl, "Unless you haven´t noticed it, Lady Mizutama, I have just gotten a rapport that one of my towns got raided by some bandits a week ago."  
A raised cynical eyebrow came from Mizutama as she stated in a monotone voice that lacked any real interest, "How surprising to see that you care that much about it."  
Kudou put his left hand to the forehead and leaned on the elbow like he had a headache.  
"The worst part was that they stole the shipment that traveled through it and left a mess behind them."  
"How many dead?"  
Kudou hummed in thought.  
Mizutama leaned forward with a morbid interest in her eyes and a cruel grin. She asked her question again slowly like she was talking to a child, "How many dead?"  
"I don´t know. Maybe two hundred peasants. I don´t keep count of trash that can be easily replaced!"  
He slammed his hand in the table to let out some frustration and continued to rub his temples as to ease the pain.  
Mizutama asked in increased curiosity, misplaced and eerie. "So you still haven´t got any better."  
Another toxic and angry look from Kudou who replied in pure hateful defiance, "Sorry to disappoint you, but it will take a lot more than this to bring me down!"  
Mizutama waved with a backhand in the air and replied in amused ignorance. "I don´t know what you´re talking about."  
"Don´t try to play innocent. I know about your little hobby, so you won´t fool me!" The paranoid outburst left his lips and he clenched his teeth once again when a sting of sharp pain went through his head.  
Gato sat quietly and had made up his mind to not speak at this meeting. He would still answer their questions but he never made any small talk like these two did. He didn´t dare speak up.  
_Seems like Kudou still suffers from the effects. Good. It seemed that I paid for high quality merchandise after all, Gato thought with some satisfaction._  
He was careful not display any emotion as Mizutama and Kudou bickered with each other. They all knew about Kudou´s anger problem and eagerness to take arms against anyone that threatened him, but Gato had learned to never soil his hands with blood or show any confidence around the others.  
A heavy bang on the table interrupted them.  
The bickering came to a halt when Joji stomped down with one heel in the floor once again.  
Ikune's voice had an amused yet irritated tone as she said, "We're going to be here all day if this childish bickering continues. I don't have the patience for this. I will point at you in a certain order and you can discuss whatever the one I point at says."  
The others looked at the self-acclaimed leader of the Fellowship, Lord Amachi, a middle aged man with a neatly combed beard that only made him look like an douche.  
He closed his eyes and nodded, in other words accepting the suggestion.  
The other lords and ladies pulled a deep and hateful sigh as none of them wanted to go through with it. To be directed by someone so low that she didn´t even have a title was a repulsive thought to many of them, yet none wanted to openly oppose the idea since none of them wanted to be ordered by the others either.  
Ikune raised a hand with amusement in her eyes and pointed towards the one closest to her right.  
Gato could tell from the long black hair, the identity of the woman.  
Fukumoto.

 _**A really young girl who only been a lady for two years by today´s account. She couldn´t be more than eighteen years but her cold emotionless eyes made her appear older than she really was. She had inherited the one common feature that all members of the Fukumoto bloodline possessed, her eyes had two different colors where her left had a chestnut brown color while the other had a bright blue one. This family trait proved that she had the right to be called a Fukumoto and the privileges that came with it. She had a heart of stone and wouldn´t think twice about condemning a child to brutal punishments, but she also possessed a high amount of political knowledge that wasn´t natural for a child of her age and knew how to rule her part of the continent and even stay ahead of the others in discussions as well. A political prodigy.** _  
_**Her family had experienced several misfortunes over the years and she had a dark history behind it. It was a mystery how three of her younger siblings had died in apparent accidents, some of them had been found dead in the cradle by natural causes. The rest of her few surviving siblings had simply vanished without a single trace. How her mother tripped in the stairs of the fortress and lost her own life at the bottom of it was a known rumor. Every other woman that her father tried to marry suddenly had been found guilty of espionage and other indiscriminating evidence that lead to their executions. This had gone on until the day that she turned sixteen and her father died in a hunting accident.** _  
_**After the alliance with the servants of yokai, Fukumoto had shown a preference to hire yokai from them as her own personal bodyguards. The only thing the group had required in return had been their absolute silence and a promise to never report anything that happened in the Land of Lightning. These guards always remained by Fukumoto´s side even if it couldn´t be seen. They all knew they wouldn´t be that far away from her if she was seen alone, regardless of the circumstances.** _  
_**She was the sole heir of the Fukumoto bloodline… and also the most dangerous from it.** _

Fukumoto spoke in a monotone voice that sounded cold to their ears and reported, "The population of Land of Lightning remains largely unchanged. Workers will be sent as expected. Nothing is amiss."  
One of the other members raised a hand and sounded a little bothered by this. "Nothing is amiss? Than what is this I heard about yokai attacking your caravans?"  
Gato turned his attention towards the speaker and identified him.  
Lord Miyake.

 _**Identified by his tendency to twitch with one eyebrow, brownish hair and a face that resembled  a rat. Infamous amongst his own peers as one of the greediest people on the continent and a desire that couldn´t be fulfilled no matter how much he got into his hands. He lived by the philosophy that one could never get too rich, too prepared, too healthy or too satisfied. He had discarded the Temple of Light faith since it didn´t permit him to have as many women that he wanted. He never married any of them and kept them as mistresses that even served as his personal bodyguards. Some were toys that he discarded once he grown tired of them or perished by his rough treatment. He only married a woman when he needed a legitimate heir to continue the bloodline. It was only a rumor though that his way with women had produced a good number of illegitimate heirs but it couldn´t be confirmed due to the lack of witnesses.** _  
_**Renowned as a "charismatic" man in the eyes of others and drew women to him like flies to a cadaver as he unleashed his charms and the alluring bait of his self-earned riches. He didn´t care much about those that he picked up as long as they had good bodies that he could ravish to his own pleasure. A true monster in that aspect and banned from all meetings in Hinode.** _  
_**After the alliance with the yokai rulers, he had come up with quite an unusual request. In fear for his own safety and increased distrust for the women he picked, he made an offer: The silence from half of the Land of Water in return for a harem that could protect him at all times. It wasn´t an unreasonable request since he had begun to fear that the women he picked up lately could be assassins, in service of the other aristocrats. The main concern thought was that he was exposed in the nights and could be killed at that time. He also requested that this harem would be composed of various different women that would please any taste he might have for the evening, women that wouldn´t complain or give him stares of pain and disgust, women that only would exist for him and endure his treatment on them.** _  
_**He got exactly what he wanted.** _  
_**Miyake had been so pleased with this new harem that he even stopped showing interest in other women anymore.** _  
_**This had earned the yokai rulers his silence and freedom to do whatever they wanted in his part of the Land of Fire.** _

Fukumoto replied without any emotion in her voice while Miyake remained nervous. "It´s not a problem anymore. It has been weeks since the last time there were any attacks within Land of Lightning."  
"That´s not the problem!" Miyake breathed rapidly as he continued. "If you´re not attacked then it means this thing will try to move to a new territory and from what I can recall, the last time it did something like this was the same time I lost two villages in my part of Land of Water."  
"What do you care? You said that they are trash anyway."  
"That might be the case, but it was my trash! And I decide when I want to dispose of it."  
Another stomp with Joji´s heel and they both silenced before the quarrel could escalate to a new level. The meeting went on as usual with Fukumoto´s conclusion of her rapport.  
"Other than that there´s nothing new to report."  
Ikune provided a pleased nod and pointed at the next person in line.  
A short man with small eyes and large nose over the long dark beard that been carefully combed and split in two halves. He had little grumpy expression and narrowed eyes that made his nose look larger than it really was.  
The mountain lord of Land of Earth.  
Chiura.

 _**A man whose stunted growth ran in the family and only made him at most 1.30 meters tall. Familiar with the country of Land of Earth and the one in charge of the resources for the organization for the most part. He could be called cruel and relentless and nobody could say much to disprove it either since his only concern was if the material arrived or not.** _  
_**He was quite sensitive about his height and anyone who made fun of it was executed with immediate effect right afterwards. It didn't matter if it was a child or not. He even carried around an axe for just that purpose and his hearing could only be described as formidable. It was said that he even could hear a man's heartbeat from ten meters away. This was also the reason to why he had survived the assassination attempts from his fellow aristocrats in the past. Not that he hadn´t tried to assassinate them in return by staged ambushes from hired mercenaries. He had tried to capture some of the malicious yokai of the north to unleash them in other ambushes but only lost more men to them.** _  
_**Of all the aristocrats, he could be considered to be the most enduring and stubborn. Refusing to die, refusing to give up and would kill anyone to become the last man at the top of the fellowship.** _  
_**He also relied on his own abilities more than the others and only trusted himself above anyone else. This decision had been his advantage since he knew that he couldn´t rely on others.** _  
_**After the alliance with the group, he wanted even more power to hone his own body further, a request that been granted and right now rested within his inner pocket until the day it could be used.** _

Chiura spoke in a really deep voice, similar to the noise of a bear. "I'm sorry to say that the latest shipments will be delayed until further notice."  
Nearly all the other aristocrats turned their stares at him and Kudou inhaled deeply in frustration. "What?"  
Chiura continued as he held up a hand as to calm Kudou down.  
"As I said, the escort of my men was ambushed by malicious yokai about two weeks from here. The only survivor that managed to get back here told me that much."  
Mizutama just rolled with her eyes and sounded bored as she spoke up. "Then just make another request to Black Mirror. They are paid to deal with these kinds of problems."  
"Black Mirror can't do anything about it. The thing that attacked will just hide again and the  rocky caverns and make it incredibly dangerous to track it, let alone hunt it."  
One of the other aristocrats, Asaka, asked in slight concern, "Is the shipment untouched?"  
Chiura just shook his head and Asaka continued, "Another one then. How many times will our caravans be raided by by humans and yokai alike?"  
"I would rather kill them all but since you people can´t make a decision without me, I constantly have to put that hunt on hold."  
Chiura gave them all an evil stare and especially at Asaka and Shimura who endured it longer than the others. It wasn't a secret that these two were responsible for most of the assassination attempts on him. None of it could be proven of course but he trusted his own gut feeling on who the guilty could be.  
"Stop wasting my time you dirty cowards."  
"How dare you!"  
Asaka rose up from his chair and defended himself from the accusations as his pride took the insult as personal.  
Asaka.

 _**A man with chestnut brown hair and in his early thirties, obsessed with the purity of the bloodline. A pure xenophobe who distrusted anyone that wasn't from the Land of Fire and believed anyone else to be inferior to his people. The list of people involved anyone from Land of Lightning, Land of Earth, Land of Water and Land of Wind. Yokai and yurei had a low place on this list but the one kind of people he despised the most was the Black Mirror's hunters. He saw it as the greatest insult to mankind that pure blooded children had to be infused with the foul and low blood of a demons or swear mutual loyalty to non-human races to combat other demons.** _  
_**He had been born with a strong sixth sense that allowed him to feel and avoid anything he deemed as "foul". He could avoid yokai and hunters with ease and saw this sense as a gift from Tengan to mark his purity. This only made his xenophobia grow even further and pushed him into delusions that he held the future of pure humanity on his shoulders.** _  
_**He ignored the cries of his own people whenever a yokai assaulted one of his villages. He believed that Black Mirror only wished to corrupt the purity of the people and had his own men round up and kill suspects. He refused to provide a single piece of ryo to Black Mirror and also had the most orphaned children in his part of Land of Fire.** _  
_**He had been one of the few aristocrats who hadn´t made a deal with the yokai rulers after their alliance. He knew that something been wrong with them the moment they entered the room and didn´t want to get involved with something that wasn´t pureblooded like himself.** _  
_**This also made it problematic to make him vow his silence to them.** _

"If you want to point finger at someone then point it at yourself! The only reason I, I mean we, have lost shipments has been solely because you don´t trust anyone but your own men to do it. If you had allowed me, I mean us, to be in charge of it then this incident wouldn´t have happened," Asaka shouted.  
Chiura pointed one of his stubby fingers at Asaka and gave a stare of paranoid accusation at him. "Aha! There it is! Why would I be so stupid to give up the control over my mine to a couple of greedy brats like you?"  
Asaka looked like a mixture between insulted and angry with bared teeth and annoyed eyes. He replied in a rapid manner. "YOUR mine!? Like hell it is! It's mine! I mean OUR mine! And just because your bloodline originated from Land of Earth doesn´t immediately mean that you have more right to it than I! I mean WE have!"  
Chiura became more intimidating than usual as he frowned in anger at him.  
"My bloodline originated from a proud family of samurai and the day I will let a filthy line of thieves and whores lay their dirty hands on the mine will be their last."  
It could be considered a sign of luck that none of the aristocrats were allowed to bring weapons into the council chamber.   
Asaka raised his voice even louder and now looked furious. "WHAT DID YOU SAY?! Oh, that´s it! Nobody insults my ancestors and gets away with it!"  
He left his seat with clenched fists and ready to unleash hell.  
Chiura mocked him with a taunt. "Oh, so you finally decide to come out from your hidey-hole you little rat? Fine with me!"  
He too rose up from his seat and made it painfully obvious that he was thirty centimeters shorter then Asaka. This didn't go unnoticed as he openly mocked Chiura now.  
"Bring it on, you little shrimp!"  
This made Chiura´s face go red like a boiled lobster and he bared his yellow teeth in anger.  
"I will eat you alive! You rat!"  
The others in the fellowship decided to not intervene and simply watch as the opportunity to get rid of some competition arrived. Some of them even crossed their fingers under the table as they prayed that one of these two would perish.  
At the other end of the table, Ikune shifted between amusement and annoyance over the childish behavior of the humans. Joji noticed the bothered eyebrows on her and raised a leg to interrupt the quarrel between Chiura and Asaka.  
"Wait…" Ikune merely whispered and Joji slowly lowered his leg again. He looked directly at Ikune for guidance of what to do next. "Nine humans are such a bother. Joji, get up and stop them in person."  
Joji looked at her for a couple of seconds and then something devious began to appear in his eyes. He lifted his legs off the table and down on the floor before he hurried towards the soon to be combatants.  
He made it just in time and held them both apart with his hands on one of their shoulders. They both looked up at him and looked rather annoyed over having their quarrel interrupted.  
Asaka looked utterly disgusted by Joji´s hand on his shoulder and violently shrugged it off.  
"Get your hands of me you filthy low blood!"  
Chiura didn´t show as much xenophobic hate as Asaka but he still didn´t like Joji´s touch. Or the fact that Joji couldn´t reach down to his shoulders and stopped him by a hand on top of the head instead.  
Ikune once again leaned forward with her hand on her chin and the impatient look, just like any mother would do when the quarrel of her children drove her to the edge of her patience.  
"This is just pathetic. Two adult men who act like toddlers fighting over a stick. I wanted a nice and normal meeting for just this once but clearly you don't."  
They both looked at her and she began to stroke her lips with her right pinky finger in slow circular movements, a little habit she had whenever she began to enjoy something.  
"You leave me no choice. Chiura!"  
The short man looked at her in an annoyed manner and she asked in a calm tone, "Do you have heirs?"  
"No, my last son was assassinated by the rat here."  
Asaka turned his eyes on him and shouted, "That wasn´t me!"  
Chiura just gave him a narrowed and evil eye before Ikune asked something else of him, "You control the majority of the human population of Land of Earth. Isn't that correct?"  
"Yes," Chiura grumbled as if he was a cornered dog in the forest. "And if my memory serves me well then I have already promised you my silence in exchange for that power you mentioned."  
Ikune seemed pleased with this and turned her head towards Asaka instead.  
"Lord Asaka."  
He didn´t seem to like the sudden change of the atmosphere, like he stood in a courtroom and was about to be judged.  
"How much of the Land of Fire do you control?"  
"A fourth of it."  
"Do you have any heirs?"  
"Yes, two daughters."  
"How old are they?"  
"Three and four years old."  
Ikune had a deep and eerie look in her face that even made Asaka forget about his anger. He knew that the man and the woman where filthy creatures in his eyes, but he also knew that they should be feared by his intuition. Not a single sound had been made and it felt like he stood in the presence of a great predator now.  
Ikune asked something else, "Is this your only family?"  
"My wife and my daughters are the only family I have."  
"Do you love them?"  
Asaka looked down and considered how carefully he picked his wife. She had been chosen from one of the finest families with pure blood, a pure body and a pure spirit. He had been so satisfied over this since a pure wife would only produce the purest of children for him. It had been his dream to make sure that the purity within the blood of Asaka survived. But to ask if he loved his family or not would be a greater insult than to be called a rat. In his eyes, they were as pure as fresh snow from the sky and therefore, worthy his full affection and care.  
Asaka nodded and Ikune seemed to think about something. She turned towards Kudou next.  
"What would happen if his bloodline came to an end?"  
Asaka´s face paled and Kudou replied with a great interest, "His territory would fall to the three remaining bloodlines of Land of Fire."  
"Would you miss him?"  
Kudou looked in Asaka´s direction and could see the obvious disbelief in the even paler face now. He smirked.  
"No."  
Ikune turned this question towards the others. "Would anyone miss him?"  
Much to Asaka's horror, nobody said anything to protest against it. They just shook their heads slowly and some of them even began to grin in excitement over the thought. Most of them had made deals with the yokai rulers in exchange for their silence and power. Asaka was one of the few that hadn't done that and he knew he was now caught in their trap. If nobody disagreed with the implied suggestion then it would be carried out.  
"Hey, this is a joke right? You seriously can't be doing this."  
He stopped himself as he realized that not only could do it, they would do it.  
Asaka began to talk with increased panic, "You can't do it! I'm one of the Fellowship. I try to keep the Land of Fire pure. You can´t just take it away from me."  
A feigned and pleading smile appeared in his face as he tried to make someone change their mind. No reaction came and he shouted, "DO YOU KNOW WHAT I HAD TO SACRIFICE!?"  
He quickly turned his head towards one of the few others who hadn't made a deal with them, Gato.  
He began to plead a little bit. "Hey, Gato. You don't agree with them right? You know that they're not pure, don't you? Since you didn´t make any deals…"  
Gato simply kept his mouth shut and looked the other way. Asaka became furious at him over this betrayal.  
"That's just like you… YOU LITTLE COWARD!"  
Ikune interrupted his shouts with a callous comment. "Seems like we have a winner. Joji, hold him tight and restrain his hands."  
Joji quickly managed to capture and constrain both of Asaka´s hands with just one of his own. There wasn´t a problem holding him down and Asaka tried to struggle out from the iron grip.  
"You dirty cowards! Don't you see that these people will defile the purity of the human race with their influence! They will defile the pure and true humans into something wicked. I can´t let that happen! I´m the savior of humanity. I need to keep it pure!"  
"Shut up."  
This came from Fukumoto who didn´t display much emotion from the commotion. She spoke to him in a calm and even satisfied tone, "We grew tired of your constant ranting about purity years ago. It´s about time that you got silenced."  
"I have an idea!"  
Mizutama interrupted with great and wicked amusement as she grinned at Asaka.  
"Let's donate his children to the Black Mirror! I can arrange the murder of his wife and the abduction to take place tonight! Wouldn´t that be interesting?"  
She turned her head towards the now shocked Asaka who had mentally collapsed. The mere thought of his pure children degenerated into the foulest and lowest of all life forms in his mind had broken it nearly in half.  
To really twist the dagger in, Ikune spoke once again, "Good suggestion! Very well, Asaka´s daughters will be sent to Black Mirror."  
That was the final straw.  
Asaka screamed in the denial over it and even managed to dislocate his own shoulders as he tried to get lose. Joji pushed him down in the table and the prey in his grip collapsed to the table incapable of moment while shackled by the strings of suffering. Ikune made a signal with her hand and Joji let go of him. Asaka remained on his spot and couldn´t get up with his broken mind and arms. He could see that the others just showed him their satisfied grins and Mizutama waved with her hand in a farewell.  
"Yeah go ahead and smile! You will be punished by the Tengan for this treachery to mankind. I hope you turn into a filthy half-blood and that my daughters will be the ones that finish you off!" Asaka just muttered in a defiant tone.  
Ikune spoke to Joji who waited patiently with his arms crossed, "Be fast and do try not to leave a mess."  
Joji smirked and grabbed around Asaka´s neck and twisted it like a doorknob.  
A pleased grin spread amongst the others as Asaka's lifeless body slumped over the table and slid down onto the ground. Nobody seemed to mourn or regret the decision as their own personal agendas had taken a big step forward towards utter dominance.  
This was one of the things that this two had changed with their involvement in Hiroiri. Before them, none of the aristocrats would ever dare to go up against each other in the open and definitely not one-on-one like that. They would also never speak openly about what to do with an aristocrat´s family like that either but the duo had slowly changed that.  
As a neutral party, the yokai rulers and their emissaries could carry out the decision to eliminate those that they deemed as dead-ends without much remorse. The others didn´t protest either since killing off the competition only benefited their own interests. They had realized that their political game of control had become much more dangerous with far greater rewards then before. They didn´t need to go through great lengths and time-consuming schemes to eliminate one of the others. It was simply enough to push one of them to the edge in the presence of the yokai and hope that they would kill them instead.  
That was the reason to why nobody wanted to end the alliance with them as well, since the reward would be complete domination over the Fellowship for the last one that survived.  
Gato looked down at the corpse of Asaka and remarked in his mind, _How interesting. I thought that I would need two or three more assassination attempts on Chiura for this to happen. Guess he was weaker than I thought._  
Chiura seemed to be rather pleased over this development and headed back to his seat. He never made it a secret that he hated Asaka for his purity rant. Even the air seemed to have changed with the death of a bloodline.  
Mizutama spoke with a pleased tone towards Ikune, "With your permission, I would like to get rid of his heirs as soon as possible."  
Ikune simply waved with a causal look in her face and replied with a bright smile. "Sure. Black Mirror always welcomes new recruits, and those children are at an age where they won't remember their own names once they grow up. And to be honest, we need all the hunters we can get."  
Mizutama began to chuckle a little bit and the mood within the room lifted itself further. The fellowship couldn´t care less about each other, but at the times when one of them died, everyone couldn´t help but show their joy over it.  
Amachi brought up a parchment and a feather pencil from within his silver robe and crossed a name from the list of bloodlines.  
"Asaka, gone."  
He kept that list as a reminder over those he needed to kill for complete dominance.  
Ikune looked over at Joji.  
"Shall I ditch this guy now?" Joji asked.  
Ikune shook her head. "No, wait until the meeting is over."  
Joji moved back to his seat and assumed the same posture as before, only with his hands behind his head this time.  
They all ignored the body and acted as if it didn´t exist. Ikune was about to point at the next person when she got interrupted by one of them.  
"Wait, there´s something I was curious about."  
"What is it?"  
The person in question was Shimura who looked suspiciously at them all.  
"Is that offer still available?"  
The others looked rather shocked as that topic even managed to get mentioned.  
Ikune gave him a long look and a small interested smile spread in her face. She closed her hands together and asked one more time, "So you wish to accept it now?  
Shimura only nodded and refused to look around on the others, tired of the games for survival.  
Kudou seemed to have something else in his mind as he quickly rose up and pointed at him with an accusation in his angry eyes.  
"Stop being such a fool! If Black Mirror finds out that there´s low bloods within our ranks, they will refuse to provide their support to us. And there´s malicious yokai out there!"  
Shimura shouted back to his defense, "So what!? The yokai rulers can provide just as much support as Black Mirror and if you decided to take a look at the fees then I would rather support these guys. They don´t try to leech us!"  
Another hit with Joji´s heel at the table and they both silenced at once.  
Ikune spoke to them both and suddenly looked serious now, she leaned back in her chair for a short while. "You should really calm yourself down Kudou. Your heart might not be able to handle any more of this."  
"I`M FINE!" Kudou roared back and suddenly silenced as he clenched his teeth together. He held one hand over his chest and slowly sank down into his chair once more.  
He frowned in pain and confusion as the others provided an interested look at him.  
Gato remarked in his mind gleefully, Seems like it finally decided to take effect. I guess I have to pay the medic ninja double after this.  
Kudou felt how another beat of pain spread through his chest and how his left arm went numb. He looked around as he grasped for air and didn't know who to trust in this place. He tried to leave his chair and failed to stand up as he fell down into the floor. The others just gave him pleased looks of superiority and glee.   
Kudou only muttered in panic, "No!"  
His heart stopped and he lived for another thirty seconds that he spent in agony over having lost to them.  
Kudou passed away in agony.  
Nobody said much after that and one of them looked over the Amachi.  
"Did he have any heirs?"  
"No," Amachi muttered as he scratched off another name on his list. "I told Kudou that he would regret not taking care for his health. All those fatty foods and lack of exercise didn't do him any favors."  
The others just nodded.  
"And then there were two," Ikune sarcastically remarked.  
Joji, on other hand, showed a pleased smile.  
Ikune brought the attention back to herself once again. "I will take care of the arrangements for the deal to be made. Anyone else here wish to discuss it?"  
Nobody had anything else to say about that issue, at least for now, and Ikune went to the next topic.  
"Good, now I have something to ask all of you. How´s the doujutsu user we lent out for you performing?"  
They all looked at Amachi who had been the one that made that request in the beginning.  
Amachi had known in advance that his competitors would try to hire and request new weapons to be used in their political war. He wasn't any different since he had requested a bodyguard for his own family´s safety. But he had made a request to the yokai rulers to provide him with a means to identify all conspirators against him, everyone who used the power of the yokai races against him.  
The yokai rulers had provided him with a main house Hyuuga they managed to "recruit" from their own missions, a young woman that could see with a bit more details than the usual Hyuuga with the Byakugan. She could tell details in the aura and the environment from several miles away and had an artistic sense to draw it in great detail as well. All she needed was parchment and ink. This had been his advantage since only he and his family had the key to her cell. That had been the reason to why he still remained as the ruler of Hiroiri while the others tried to catch up with him. But the request had come with a high price.  
He had learned that a little over four years ago, before he had set up the barriers and locks in her cell, Lord Miyake had violated her and gotten her pregnant. The woman gave birth to twins, and the girl was always kept in the cell with the boy allowed to wander in Amachi's section of the fortress with more freedom. They both had their mother's appearance and powers, and made sure to stay hidden. Unfortunately, or fortunately, the mother died shortly after giving birth. Recently, both the boy and girl had succumbed to injuries and sickness. In fact, the seer girl hung on longer than her twin and finally died yesterday.  
Never before did the yokai rulers bring her up, and the man hoped they didn't suspect anything happened to her.  
"Just fine. I have managed to catch five conspirators the last two weeks," Amachi replied. He ogled at the others with implications of accusation in his eyes while he talked away. "I´m pretty sure you all knew about this."  
Ikune gave him an emotionless stare as she instead asked, "I hope so. But if you don´t mind, I wish to check on her just to see that she's really okay."  
"Why? I told you she´s fine."  
"So you say, but we will have to use her talents for later and if she´s not rested and exhausted by then we will have to wait here until she has recovered. And if she has not been treated as we expected her to be then you can kiss that head of yours goodbye."  
The others in the Fellowship immediately began to scheme as they now had a new target to expose.   
A series of smug grins spread amongst the others with the exception of the emotionless Fukumoto. Gato didn't protest against it since he didn't have anything but his own influence to keep him alive. The others didn't even bother actively trying to get rid of him since he never spoke up or tried to kill them.  
"Chiura should…"  
"Don´t even bother." The short man rose up from his chair as to leave. "I´m not so pathetic that I can´t defend myself."  
"And where are you going?"  
"To get my axe."  
Chiura left the room and Mizutama asked with a look at the corpses, "Well, two bloodlines are better than none I guess. How are you planning to smuggle these bodies out?"  
Joji replied with a tricky grin in his face, "Fire can easily erase their existence."  
Miyake turned towards Ikune and asked a cautious question, "So I guess all the serious topics have been dealt with?"  
"Not quite, but since the atmosphere is much nicer when there´s less people in the room. I guess you can chat a little."  
"Good, because I have one question."  
Ikune seemed to be patient with him and he leaned towards her and whispered, "Can I get three more added to my harem?"  
"No."  
Miyake rose up from his chair and left the room along with Shimura who kept a distance from him. The mood between the aristocrats had been a little brighter by the deaths of Asaka and Kudou bloodlines, but they would soon return to their own schemes and try to stab each other in the back as usual.  
Fukumoto left the room without a single word and a shadow left the darkness of the wall. Her bodyguard had been there the whole time and followed her around in a dark outfit that had hid her out of sight.  
Mizutama remarked to herself that she needed to hire new servants and left the room after a planned appointment with Joji. After that, she left the room and only Gato and Amachi remained in the room.  
Ikune asked with good intentions towards them both, "Anything you wish to say?"  
Gato sat there for five minutes and then looked down without a single word said. He left the room and didn´t need to run this time. He didn´t have the energy to do that after the rush to the meeting in the first place.  
Only Amachi remained and he looked as serious as ever. Ikune knew that he could be considered to be the ringleader of the Fellowship and the one with most power amongst them. He never did anything without a second thought.  
"Royal servants," He spoke with a calm and experienced voice without fear towards her. Ikune and Joji paid attention as he spoke to them. "What is it you and your masters get from all this?"  
No reaction from either and Amachi received a confused question in return from Joji. "Excuse me?"  
"You people came here and wanted to make an alliance with us, in exchange that we wouldn´t reveal your existence to anyone nor interfere. You offer us the means to eliminate each other without a second doubt and we accepted it, but what do you expect in return from us?"  
"We only expect your silence. You can see this as a further investment if you like," Ikune answered him.  
"What can you possibly gain from our political game?"  
"Does it matter?"  
"What would happen if we went out from this deal? If we told others about you?"  
"Oh, nothing pleasant I´m afraid. I will have Joji here kill you all to make sure you won´t say a word and I doubt the others would like to pull out from this alliance either. They have been very grateful to have protection at any hour of the day without the need to pay for it."  
Amachi looked down and Ikune talked away.  
"If I recall it correctly, then it was you who wanted a bodyguard for your wife and child. And I can say that Tohru has done a good job this far."  
"That´s true, but where did you get these yokai to begin with?"  
"You don´t need to know that."  
"And why do you want the seer you placed here to draw off every single hunter that enters Hiroiri´s borders?"  
"None of your concern but we might need to stay here for a little while. Just to arrange some minor details."  
Amachi let out a tired sigh and left Ikune and Joji as he needed to attend to his other duties.  
The door closed behind him.  
Joji looked back at Ikune and got off the chair with ease.  
"How bothersome and annoying."  
"Did you say something?"  
Joji scratched the back of his head and asked as he moved over to the two bodies and set it on fire with a quick fire nature jutsu.  
"I thought that we try to get rid of people like these so why are we helping them?" Ikune looked in his direction dully. "Why should we even bother with politics?"  
Ikune only had one complaint and annoyance could be seen in her face as a pair of frowned eyebrows. "Do you know what an aristocrat is?"  
"A swine in in a nice suit?" He guessed sarcastically.  
Ikune snorted, trying to hide her amusement at his words.  
"An Aristocrat is someone that has taken the role as a leader. They force their subjects to pay taxes, work without pay and to give up some of their food to them. They also have to decide if a village should be saved from yokai and ninja or not since the town can't pay for the fee themselves. What can you tell by this so far?"  
"Those aristocrats are jerks?"  
"Yes. I would not go to that short length of jerks but you got it right."  
"The aristocrats are making the people suffer and take advantage of them and we will turn this suffering on the aristocrats instead?"  
"Try again."  
Joji just mused with his thumb on his chin.  
"We help the Aristocrats, so they won´t tell on us?"  
"Nearly there."  
"But I don´t get it! If we want them to stay silent then why all this trouble? We could just kill them!"  
"Joji, the rulers have already considered that and that wasn´t a good idea."  
"Why not?"  
"Because they would just be replaced with their heirs."  
"Then we kill them to."  
"And then there´s the witnesses in this fortress. Not to mention the connections and their statuses as advisors and co-rulers of civilian forces in the different countries."  
"Just kill them."  
"It would be a bloodbath."  
"So? I'm a Jashinist. That's how we usually prefer things."  
"And people will move in and begin to ask questions about how said bloodbath happened."  
"Well, shit." Joji cursed before looking at the young woman. "What will we do?"  
"We will pay a visit to the girl, check on her and ask for a certain person´s face."  
"Who?"  
Ikune rolled her eyes and just shook her head.  
"Joji, if you don´t even remember that then I can't help but wonder if you were dropped too often as a baby." She shrugged then looked at him seriously. "I will only tell you this once so listen well."

-

The screen blanked out and was replaced by another scene, hinting that whatever was about to be explained was spoilers for him too.

In one of the many corridors of the Fortress, Miyake moved with swift steps and displayed his displeasure in the open. He needed to get back to his quarters and his personal bodyguards before his competitors could assassinate him. He threw a suspicious look over his shoulder to make sure that nobody followed him and muttered to himself in annoyance.  
"That bastard! Who does Shimura think he is? Well, if he´s willing to turn sterile for the sake of power then I can finally pull out my piece. What an idiot. He openly announced his decision. I won't complain though. I´m ready for it."  
He looked up and noticed one of his messengers approaching him in great hurry.  
"Miyake! I have news!"  
The messenger delivered a small letter and Miyake impatiently ripped it out from his hand. He recognized it as the one he sent two weeks ago to the Uchiha clan for a small matter.  
He began to read it and a pleased, sly smile appeared in his face.  
"Good. You can go."  
The messenger had looked nervous by the eerie expression Miyake had as he read the letter. He quickly excused himself and left as fast as he could.  
"My favorite little ninja is coming here. That's so fortunate all things considered. Shimura can rot in hell before he even will enjoy his power," Miyake said with interest as he went through the letter once again.  
He walked calmly within the parts of the fortress that could be considered his property. He soon reached the safest room in his quarters.

-

Madara frowned at seeing his clans symbol on the letter and heard the man's comment. Before he could look into that more, the scene changed.

Fukumoto took her time as she didn't have anything to fear with her own shadow to protect her.  
Her bodyguard, a woman with a shaved head and dressed in a tight dark outfit, asked in an intrigued tone, "Shimura will be a threat if he proceeds with the arrangements. Do you wish me to eliminate him once he ceases to be human?"  
Fukumoto considered the thought with a bored expression and replied with a short and cold answer, "No."  
"But your highness…"  
"I don´t need to do anything about it. Do you know why Keina?"  
Keina kept her mouth shut and Fukumoto spoke up with a bored tone, "Because that's what these other morons are made for. I won´t need to soil my hands with their filthy blood unless necessary."  
"You will accept the arrangement as well, your highness?"  
Fukumoto stopped in her steps and Keina stood right behind her and looked down at the back of her head.  
"Keina," Fukumoto spoke with a faint voice and immediately turned around on the spot and grabbed Keina around the bottom of her head. She pulled her down towards her own face and looked dead serious with a hint of endless anger behind her gaze. "Look into my eyes."  
Keina couldn't respond as she had been conditioned to not do any harm towards Fukumoto. It had been a part of the arrangement with the group that Fukumoto would receive a bodyguard that couldn´t be bribed or betray her at any point. She could see the odd-colored eyes and nodded.  
"These eyes are the undeniable evidence that I´m a Fukumoto. They grant me the rights to the family fortune and influence."  
"Yes."  
"I would never trade them away for the eyes of a low taking yokai just to get more power."  
She let go of Keina once her point was made clear and they continued their walk.  
"Miyake will handle the problem for us."  
"That hound?"  
"Yes. He has waited for this to happen from the start and he´s also the reason to why I never try to assassinate him either."  
"He has a weapon against what Shimura will go through?"

Fukumoto chuckled an emotionless laughter and said in a vicious tone, "He´s sure a hound with such dirty secrets under his pillows. We won´t have to get involved in this for now."  
They continued to her own private quarter and Fukumoto didn´t worry as she had her shadow to watch her back.

-

Mizutama moved through the hallways of her domain with a smile on her eerie face. To know that both Asaka's and Kudou's bloodline had ended in front of her eyes had made her day complete. She had planned to have him poisoned two weeks from now and realized she didn't need to waste it on him. Instead her efforts would be directed towards the elimination of Chiura. But then she had to worry about what Shimura was about to do as well.  
"That stubborn little runt won´t know what hit him, or should I hire some archers to finish the job instead?"  
She was approached by one of her servants and she snorted in disgust over his presence.  
"Took you long enough. Bring me my mirror."  
The servant carefully handed over a small handheld and elegantly carved mirror to her. She immediately picked it up and held it to search her own face with a compulsive obsession. She used her free hand to tap her face and her eyes traveled over the smooth skin in pursue of wrinkles, grey hair or any defect in her youthful appearance.  
She was flawless, at least in her mind, yet her own fear of the passage of time had begun to drive her over the edge.  
"I´m beautiful, just like always. Don't you agree?"  
She turned her head down towards the servant who muttered a response in fear. "Y-yes. There´s n-n-nobody like you in the whole world."  
Mizutama returned her gaze towards the mirror and admired what she saw. "A good result from all those treatments. Which reminds me… You!"  
She yelled to the servant who jumped back in fear by her shout. Her tone made it sound like she was talking to a piece of trash.  
"Bring me my medic ninja at once! I need to speak with him."  
"Of course, Milady."  
He rushed away and she headed towards one of the dungeons and her "bathroom".  
She constantly fought a battle against time as she tried to maintain her youth in any way possible. She had tried countless potions and herbs that would keep her face young and pretty forever. The last couple few decades though, she had tried a new treatment where she leeched on the youth and life force of others to sustain her own.  
She met another servant outside the door, along with a couple of her loyal guards. She asked in an arrogant tone, "Is everything prepared?"  
The servant spoke with an obedient tone, "Yes Milady. Your bath has been cleaned and ready for use."  
"And the treatment?"  
"The girl you chose was gagged and is ready to be sacrificed to you."  
Mizutama displayed a satisfied and morbid grin as she asked something else, "How old is she?"  
"Thirteen, Milady."  
"Perfect! Is there anymore in the storage?"  
"No, this was the last one."  
Mizutama spoke with some annoyance directly at the servant with anger. "I can´t have that, I need my monthly special baths after all! Get out and find me some more!"  
"The usual age? Milady?"  
"Of course the usual age! Just make sure you don´t pick anyone above the age of fifteen."  
Her servant bowed and replied a polite response, "It will be done, Milady."  
Mizutama didn´t bother with details and entered the room with muffled screams for help within it. Mizutama would take her time to figure out a counterattack against Shimura, but she refused to let it intervene with her baths in the "fountain of youth" as she called it. She began to consider the same offer that Shimura had accepted mere hours ago, the opportunity to remain young forever for the price of sterility sounded more of a temptation now. She might even consider it and tell the emissaries for the yokai rulers that she too would be ready to accept the offer.  
The muffled cries for help began to annoy her and she decided to solve that problem first of all.  
Mizutama turned towards her servant once again. "And before you go, please sacrifice the girl first."  
"As you wish, Milady."

-

"That is one of the most disturbing things I've learned about this world so far," Madara said. He actually was mildly horrified at the implications. Hundreds if not thousands of prepubescent children were killed by this woman for a damn bath.  
"Orochimaru would approve of this."  
He sincerely hoped the future madman never learned of this or things would a lot worse off.  
The scene returned to the two yokai.

Joji opened his eyes widely and in great shock from what he had heard.  
"Holy shit. That's fucking insane."  
Ikune bit her own lip in displeasure as she inhaled deeply in frustration. Joji still remained in shock and tried to put two and two together and accept it.  
"So the royals... Seriously?!" He stared wide-eyed and let his mouth babble air. "Holy shit." He frowned greatly in huge confusion and disbelief as he turned towards Ikune. "Is that even possible?!"  
"Apparently it is. Nothing is impossible. You know our rulers as well as I do, or thought I did."  
Ikune sounded more than displeased and Joji knew that he better get out of this room before Ikune unleashed her anger upon him.  
"Okay, I understand. I think I do. They must have their reasons. I think I'll go back to the guestroom and forget all about this conversation. Maybe get some decent sleep as well."  
He stood up and headed towards the exit as soon as he could.  
Joji reached the thick doors and left her in peace as he closed it behind him without a single sound.  
It was quiet and she tapped one finger in the table as she tried to accept the thought herself. It was something truly unbelievable and she couldn´t understand why it turned out as it did.  
Ikune left the room soon enough and headed to the dungeon where the woman had been placed. She prepared the operation for Shimura in her mind as she left the chamber.

 

Miyake reached the elegant double-doors that lead to his quarters. He almost couldn´t hide his excitement as he pushed the two doors wide open and enjoyed the sight of his own personal throne room.  
Gold and a polished granite floor shone from the candlelight from the huge chandeliers. A blue carpet that lead from the entrance to his throne that been gold-plated on his request, divided the floor in two through its colored stripe. He enjoyed the chance to display his wealth at any opportunity and made his throne as a piece of art with two women in marble which held up the back of it. These sculptures were even equipped with a pair of sapphire and ruby eyes to enhance the grandiose appearance. There were also three doors behind the throne with different purposes. The one to the right lead to his treasure room, filled to the brim with jewels and gold from the mines. The right lead to his collection of elegant pieces of art such as paintings and rare objects he bought.  
The middle door was his most important room and also the safest one in his part of the fortress.  
His bedroom.  
Usually he would head straight for it but instead he moved over to his throne. After all, he had a guest to attend to.  
He looked around and said, "Any minute now. She won´t have the nerve to be late to an invitation."  
He leaned to the right in a comfortable position with legs crossed.  
A servant appeared at the entrance and his voice barely made it over to Miyake.  
"Lord, your guest has grown impatient from waiting."  
"Let her in."  
"Sir?"  
The servant didn´t sound so relaxed and Miyake raised an eyebrow. "What is it?"  
"Nothing. I will show her in."  
The servant vanished for a short moment and he hid his pleased smile behind a smug one.  
The doors opened and the sound of armored boots got muffled by the carpet.  
Let Shimura become a monster. It´s not a big deal anyway. I already have the solution to that problem.  
The steps stopped and he gave the requested visitor a good look.  
The grey and silver armor shined like the gold he used to decorate the walls. The female body stood straight and proud with the brighter grey cape and the handle of a long sword tilted to the left behind her head. A symbol of the Uchiha clan was on a black cloth died around her neck. He could see the short pitch black hair that pointed in spikes backwards as to keep the focus on her face and the single strand of hair on the left side over her forehead. She had the charisma of arrogance to her but now her black eyes had been filled with great annoyance and defiance over his presence.  
He had sent for a ninja from the Uchiha clan after all and requested to have this one for a reason.

 Miyake spoke with a slightly comfortable tone as his on arrogance and superiority sipped through his voice.  
"Welcome to my palace. It has been a while hasn´t it?"  
Kurumi looked at him in pure dislike behind arrogance and didn´t answer him. It was obvious that she didn´t enjoy his presence and he asked instead.  
"That´s cold even for you. Long trip?"  
Kurumi remained in defiant silence and she looked at him like he was trash with a face filled of hate and disgust.  
He gave her a single command.  
"Kneel."  
Kurumi refused and he repeated himself in a more demanding tone as he tensed his eyes.  
"I said kneel!"  
Kurumi inhaled a slow and deep breath as she closed her eyes and kneeled forward with her right hand on her knee with the other along her body. She bowed her head down and hid her eyes from his relentless and greedy stare.  
Miyake gave her a superior and arrogant smile as he got his will through and changed his demand.  
"You don't have to worry. What will be spoken in here won't leave this room. You can greet me now."  
Kurumi remained silent for another minute as she collected her words and fought herself to say them. What came out from her lips sounded forced and yet respectful.  
"Greetings Lord Miyake. I´m here as requested. What do you want from me this time…"  
She clenched her left hand slowly until the point that it began to shiver in restrained anger. She inhaled a sharp and deep breath as she looked up and nailed her eyes into Miyake´s, eyes of true arrogant anger and forceful acknowledgement as she struggled to say the final word.  
Kurumi looked up to the man in the throne and spoke the final word like it was an uncomfortable and heavy burden.  
"Father."

-

Kurumi being a half Uchiha was well known in the clan, or at least it was common knowledge to the version of himself that was in the middle of this insane mess. Her mother had returned from a failed mission, before that version of him was even born, pregnant. She had died a few years later leaving Kurumi alone.  
The social stigma of having an unknown, until now apparently, father and a traumatized mother who was moved to taking care of the clan base, in addition to her mixed blood status had caused her to develop various complexes. Kurumi was prideful and arrogant to the point of forcing all but the main house to kneel to her once. She looked down on her fellow branch members, and even at times was arrogant toward the main house. When Sakuya was born, and Kurumi saw how well she was treated in comparison to her own early life, the young woman snapped and showed visible distaste for the white haired girl.  
That made him pause and he searched the screens for Sakuya. On the screen to the left of him he found her, and wished he didn't.  
Cages and more cages lined the large barely illuminated room that lacked windows. The cries of children filled the complete darkness and in the cage farthest from then torches were two people with white hair. They were in a separate cage, and the older one was scratching frantically at some type of collar.  
"I'm going to hunt down and kill that filthy Uchiha wench the moment I'm out of here."  
Madara took great glee at seeing the few years older Tobirama Senju shackled and restrained. His mood soured when he realized the person who was still unconscious had to be Sakuya.  
_Kurumi was going to die for this._


	6. Light The Powder Keg

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bloodthirsty nobles, centuries long grudges and hate, and horrors on young impressionable minds make for wonderful fuel.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Children deaths, hallucinations and delusions, oh my.

Madara noticed on a different screen that the other version of himself was sneaking into the giant wheel shaped complex along with Shukaku.  
He followed as they moved toward Gato's wing, but decided to alternate between that view and the others in this upcoming battle when Sakuya began to stir into awareness.

-

Sakuya sat up, but it was likely too fast for her friend since he said, "Easy there. You were hit worse than me when we were captured."  
She opened her eyes with some difficulty, feeling the dried blood on her face crack a little as she stretched. "What happened?"  
"Some crazy Uchiha woman, not that they weren't all crazy to begin with attacked us. We were knocked unconscious and clearly moved a long way." Tobirama was pissed and he kept on scratching something around his neck.  
When he explained what he recalled happening, Sakuya grimaced. Kurumi had found and attacked them when they were training, likely thinking she was betraying the clan. Or she was just that much of a bitch.  
In the back of her mind, she had a desire to kill Kurumi or at the very least make sure she died for this. She had a feeling that her subconscious was a bloodthirsty asshole and she wasn't that upset about that fact.  
The fact her friend was still scratching his neck forced her to look at that area. Around his neck was a black leather choker. Thin clear gem shards were on one side of it, with the same size and type of shard was on the other side. The gems there had an faint blue hue to it.  
There was no key or latch, and she had the feeling it was preventing Tobirama from using chakra.  
"And that's when you got your new accessory?" Sakuya asked. "And here I thought you were getting into BDSM and being dominated."  
It said a lot for the passage of time and their friendship that Tobirama didn't even ask what she meant by that. There was just this done expression on his face.  
"I'm eight. I really don't have an interest in that kind of thing."  
"And I'm five."  
"You are wearing one as well." Tobirama said, pointing at her own neck.  
 _Huh. That explains the tightness around my neck. I don't feel any difference in power though._  
Sakuya shrugged. "I'm more into the domination than submission, but I don't mind switching."  
Tobirama clearly had no idea what she meant, other than it being perverted. "Still eight and you are still five."  
"Just wait. Many prideful, arrogant, domineering and obsessive people on the street are meek and submissive in the sheets."  
"For the love of whatever is out there, shut up!" Tobirama snapped. The white haired boy's raised voice frightened the other children and it startled even her. "Can't you be serious and not troll something for a moment?!"  
For a fraction of a second, she had shrink in on herself and eyed him warily. She forced herself out of that situation and looked at him seriously. "I joke, mess around and troll in serious situations because if I didn't, I might panic or be too stressed out to figure out how to survive. It eases my tension."  
Tobirama seemed to deflate once he understood what she was doing. "I see." He scratched the collar again. "Can you cut this off me?"  
She raised a suspicious eyebrow at that. "Isn't it blocking your chakra somehow?"  
"Yes."  
"And they removed all of our stuff when we were caged?" _Well, everything on our person at least._  
"That does seem like the most likely outcome."  
She put her hands on her hips and leaned toward the boy. "Then how the hell am I supposed to do that?!"  
His answer was so sure, so confident that it took her back. "You are a god right?"  
 _The fuck is he-_  
Her thoughts stopped dead as memories of what she told him and Hashirama the last few years floated through her mind. All her powers, knowledge, and foreknowledge were blamed on her being some physical deity or some rot...and he actually believed that wholeheartedly.  
 _Well, shit._  
Tobirama seemed hopeful she could free him. She couldn't let him down.  
"Of course I am!" She cheered, lightly hitting her chest as if that would make it more truthful than before. "Just stay still. No moving okay."  
Tobirama nodded and she got to work.  
Wiping the sweat from her brow, Sakuya realized it was enough to make a single knife made from water and did so. Her hands were damp and cool from the water, and since it was stable only for a few more seconds, she lunged at Tobirama.  
The Senju didn't flinch or shiver at her moving quickly to him with a sharp weapon and it made Sakuya realize something. He trusted her completely.  
No ninja would do such a thing if they didn't trust the other person. The only other reason was if they didn't think she was a threat or serious but Tobirama did.  
A faint twinge of some forgotten emotion moved within her but she pushed that away as she sliced the leather collar off both of them. The water evaporated as the shredded collars fell to the ground.  
With a flick of her middle finger, dark blue flames consumed the items, destroying it in her muted rage.  
Tobirama was too busy flexing his neck to look around so she did instead.  
Sakuya turned to look at the other children and she could see they lived on the street for a long time. Filth and scabs covered their flesh and their eyes were tired, cold and on the verge of being lifeless and hopeless.  
Sakuya sighed in the dark and at the iron bars in front of her.  
 _I sense dozens of yokai of various species and strength levels, and I can smell large amounts of blood throughout this fortress._  
She frowned, her face twisting in anger over the implications and the scene around her.  
"To treat children and human beings like cattle or toys is unforgivable."  
Her tiny hands clenched around the solid bars and she shivered a little bit.   
She frowned in suppressed rage and the bars began to pull apart slowly. The other children began to wonder what the sound was but she ignored them for now.  
Sakuya changed her grip and pushed the bars instead and made a single heavy push.  
The children screamed a little as the bars on Sakuya's and Tobirama's cage bent like they were made of butter and broke completely. She stepped outside the cage followed by Tobirama and could hear how the children wondered in fear and confusion.  
The children couldn't see them and Sakuya spoke to them with an assuring voice, "Please be calm. We are here to save you all."  
Only a few listened to her and the cries began to fade away as she moved towards the only door in the room.  
"I will go and find the keys. So please be quiet and wait here."  
The children listened to her voice that been adapted to provide comfort.  
"Okay, big sister."  
Sakuya sighed in relief over the fact that they wouldn´t make any trouble for them.  
 _Let's see, the key should be in here somewhere._  
Sakuya opened the door and the lights of torches entered the room. She peeked outside to make sure no guards approached in either direction.  
 _This is going far too well. I feel like I'm entering a boss area._  
She stepped outside and made up her mind over the next step.  
 _I just have to track down the blood scent to get answers._  
"Excuse me." A girl´s voice got her attention and she turned her head back at them. "Can you leave the door open for a little bit? It´s scary here."  
Sakuya's face softened in sympathy and understanding. Even if it went against her desires and instinct, she felt this might serve her better in the end.  
"Of course."  
"Thank you."  
Sakuya smiled a little as she left a small gap in the door to let in a small ray of light. She left them and headed to the right with fast steps.  
 _I will be back with the keys, after I kill those bastards behind this madness._  
Tobirama was shaking his head at her consideration. 

-

The night ticked on as Gato sat with a pen in his right hand and a parchment in the other. The sweat gleamed in his forehead from the dim candlelight on his desk along with more parchments as he wiped the drops away on his sleeve.  
His private quarters were the smallest and contained shelf after shelf of scrolls and reports from his part of the continent. Several smaller objects such as decorative obsidian stones weighted them down and prevented them from rolling away.  
He read through the parchment in his hand, written in a sloppy hand style.  
From the mayor of Kimura: "Honorable Gato, we have reason to believe that there´s a malicious yokai in our village. There have been ten dead in three weeks along with crops dying after some strange signs were found in the village. We can´t afford the fee so we humbly ask for your help. Please send for help from the Black Mirror. We beg you on our knees."  
Gato looked through the letter once again and wiped the sweat from his face with his left forearm.  
 _Kimura was Kudou´s responsibility. I can´t believe that all these requests got stacked up like this. I thought that he burned these as soon he got them, but then again, am I the only bloodline that has to handle all the others paper work?_  
Gato scribbled his signature on a second parchment that contained details of a malicious yokai hunt. It would be sent to the Black Mirror the next day, along with a dozen others in a second pile of letters marked with his seal.  
 _Just a couple of more and then some sleep._  
He stopped writing as a faint sound got his attention.  
He stopped scribbling with his feather-pen as a faint sound got his attention.  
 _No, my bodyguards stand right outside the only door. They are loyal. At least, I hope they are._  
Gato rose up from his chair to investigate if everything was in order.  
A small hand fell on his right shoulder from behind and he nearly got a heart attack from it.  
"What the-!?"  
His voice was muffled as a dark clad arm wrapped around his neck and his hands were restricted by a second hand. A distorted voice echoed in his ear with intimidation behind it.  
"Not a single sound."  
Gato flickered with his eyes in increased panic as the fear for his life moved through him. His immediate thought was who or what had managed to sneak inside his room.  
A huge man in monk clothes appeared from the dark shadows and moved around him.  
"How did you get in here? Where are my guards!?"  
"Dead."  
The voice belonged to someone little more than a decade old and that made this all the more insane to him. The monk pounced on Gato the moment the figure behind him let go and moved around to a shell of parchments and pulled out one of the letters. He couldn't make out any features of the youth.  
Madara looked down at the letter and noticed something that he pointed out. "Look at this, a request for emergency aid from a town that couldn't pay."  
He looked directly at Gato as he finished the sentence.  
"It was denied."  
Gato looked much paler than usual and began to put up defenses for his actions.  
"What?! Wait, that´s not mine. That was Asaka's. Who sent you? Tell me at least who it was so I can curse him or her."  
Madara's eyes widened slightly at the threat toward one of the few people he cared about but managed to keep calm. He would prove how unwise such things were soon enough.

"Gato, you will answer all my questions without hesitation."  
Gato narrowed his eyes, catching the unspoken words.  
"If I co-operate then you will let me go?"  
No response from the boy, only brutal silence.  
"Okay, what do you want to know?"  
"No backbone at all," Shukaku remarked with an amused tone.  
"How did the Fellowship get involved with yokai?" Madara asked first.  
Years living with Hisato, his beloved niece and Seishi/Shukaku had granted most of the immediate family to Sakuya some form of sensing or seeing toward spirits and yokai. Madara was one of the more sensitive people, and he immediately noticed the distinct presence and pressure of low to mid-level yokai inside the fortress. Aside from Shukaku who was a noble, and his neice who was either a noble or royal, there was another royal there as well.  
"We were contacted by a group of people who offered us all protection and power around five years ago."  
 _Around the time that Sakuya was born then. Surely that isn't a coincidence,_ Madara thought to himself.  
"What is their name?"  
"We don´t know. We only refer to them as they introduced themselves as followers of the seven yokai rulers. The female I believe said once that she was the latest wind ruler, and based on hierarchy did the dirty work for the others."  
Usually he didn't have a problem with this new life of his, it was largely the same as his first life during the warring states era, but there were moments when he wished he knew more about the past of this world so he wouldn't get caught unaware like this.  
The seven Royal yokai was obviously some type of 'god' or ruler, but Madara didn't know much more than that.  
"There's yokai within the ranks of the Fellowship?"  
"Yes."  
"Can you tell how many of them are involved in this?"  
"Yes! I have detailed information about each family's involvement, down to every single agreement. They all offered their silence."  
Madara held back the next question as he thought to himself, It would appear that Shukaku was correct in his observation of this lineage. The Gato bloodline were cowards and opportunists of the worst and most annoying type. Sakuya had, or would have, limited dealings with another Gato, but they were equally as annoying and bothersome. If this man was wiped out, there would be no Gato ahead of them.  
"Begin with Kudou."  
"The bloodline was eliminated a few hours ago. He has mindless yokai among his personal guard."  
"Fukumoto?"  
"The previous title holder died five years ago. His daughter took over the throne and ruled since then. I don't know about her agreement with the rulers except for a personal guard they provided."  
"Chiura?"  
"He relies on himself and agreed to enforce his own position. Offered silence in exchange for demonic power. He's almost like a yokai himself."  
Madara's eyes flickered at hearing the indirect despise to yokai and those allied with them. "But you can't be certain?"  
"No, he always stays to himself."  
"The Miyake bloodline?"  
"Silence in exchange for a harem of eleven women."  
"Any details about them?"  
"None, but servants have disappeared when asked to clean his private quarters. I suspect he feeds them as food."  
"Anything else?"  
"The Asaka bloodline was wiped out as well. Amachi has several strong yokai and an Hyuuga sensor. Shimura has agreed to abandon his humanity for the sake of power. The rulers will turn him into some type of demon."  
Sensing that was all the information he was going to get, Madara motioned toward Shukaku to kill the man and he walked out just as he heard the short scream die off behind him.

Madara looked down at the ashes of the guards without much of a change in his expression. He slowly glanced around the hallway.  
The entire fortress felt profoundly wrong for some reason. Everything was off and even the air and atmosphere itself was darker and hinted at the great loss of life in these walls.  
"Look at you! Killing people for the one you lo-"  
Madara glared at the blond haired male. Suspecting Gavin and Royce was linked to what was going on was one thing, having one of the meddling fools indirectly confirm being connected to her was quite another.  
"It's not like that," Madara stated.  
Gavin smiled knowingly at the young boy, a strange twinkle in his ice blue eyes.  
"Right," he drawled out. "You aren't desperate to get senpai's attention."  
The well dressed young man raised his hands up in defense when the boy had activated his three tomoe Sharingan to glare at him.  
"Ah, that's right," Gavin said all of a sudden. A strange knowing and sympathetic expression crossed the man's face as he looked at the ten year old. "You only briefly experienced such an sensation before the chance was taken away from you. I, in my infinite mercy, brought you here to try again at life and perhaps even more... As was the initial part of or our deal."  
Madara turned to look at the man fully, his mind racing as he slowly grasped at what he was hinting at.  
"Do you mean to tell me that-"  
Gavin interrupted the smaller male by pressing a finger against his lips.  
Madara's eyes widened slightly at the sudden movement.  
 _How did he move so fast?_  
With another blink of his eyes, Gavin had moved back to where he was already and didn't seem to have moved at all. If it wasn't for the lingering feeling of his finger in his lips, Madara would even say he didn't move at all.  
"I will neither confirm or deny anything that involves her," Gavin said firmly. He crossed his arms and looked down in thought. Quieter, more to himself he added, "I am surprised at his reaction and response to the concept. Perhaps I should keep an eye on that development?"  
Gavin suddenly lifted his head and turned in a specific direction, his eyes narrowing into slits.  
"It would seem that Sakuya is having a change of plans." He glanced back at Madara and left a rather ominous statement behind as he wandered away.  
"The lingering emotions, resentments, and other horrors are getting to her."  
Madara didn't know what to make of that so he decided to check on some of the lesser families, quietly destroying guards alongside Shukaku once he returned to his side.

-

One of the guards walked around with one of the torches and kept his attention up, one hand at his sword.  
He had the feeling of being followed but had confirmed it to be simple paranoia.  
Unknown to him, he had two very silent observers right in his shadow.  
Tobirama looked around as he tried to not draw attention to himself. It wasn't hard to hide since his short posture allowed quick maneuvers if the guard would turn around to check.  
He glanced at his friend who was noticeably distracted for a change, and it was odd to see since she was rarely distracted. Sakuya was always multitasking so seeing her so unfocused was weird.  
Her eyes darted around widely, seemingly focusing on something he couldn't see and she was very tense. Not out of fear, or at least not her own.  
Sakuya had been like this since they entered the massive fortress and it was only getting worse by the moment.  
She sniffed the air like an animal would and judging from her resigned yet determined expression, Sakuya could tell where the closest blood scent was strongest.   
Sakuya suddenly turned her head so their gazes met.  
Pale red met dark cherry red and they saw the others resolve and felt relieved that they weren't alone.  
They reached a three-way corridor and Sakuya could sense that the blood where the strongest from the left. But that hallway lacked torches, like it contained something that shouldn´t be seen. The guard headed towards the right and she simply averted from the course without further bother.  
Metallic footsteps approached them from the front and she noticed a guard further ahead. This one didn´t have a torch and she decided to enter the darkest corner she could find.  
She held her breath, Tobirama following suit, and the guard slowly walked right past their location.  
The guard stopped and Sakuya silently readied her body and hands to crack the man's neck should the need arises.  
Nobody moved for a short moment and then the guard looked in the opposite direction of her and she slowly moved deeper in the hallway and along the wall.   
The guard looked at the spot they had been in mere seconds ago. She froze immediately and did everything to not be seen easily.  
Another minute went by in utter silence and Sakuya held her breath as she counted the seconds.  
The guard muttered something and then moved on.  
"Get a hold of yourself. Jumping at everything again."  
He didn´t raise any alarms and she sighed in relief once he got out of range.  
Tobirama sighed in relief as well.  
"That took a few years off my life span," he mouthed.  
Sakuya quietly chuckled.  
The scent of blood filled her senses and she headed towards it once again.  
It was foolish to do so in hindsight, but there wasn't enough information on the place itself to go elsewhere. And knowing where to go first was better than wandering hopelessly.  
"I don't feel so good," Sakuya said more to herself than her companion.  
Tobirama looked over at her in concern but didn't say anything.

-

Ikune moved through the barely lit hallways and rows of dark doors that lead to filthy holding cells. Each one held a number of inmates that had to share their room with corpses of their roommates. The smell of dried blood and corpses filled her nostrils, a smell that annoyed her to no end.  
 _I should have known that they would mistreat her. These conditions are inhumane_.  
Helpless pleading came from within the cells, some of them with powerless whining to accomplish it, reached out to her.  
She simply ignored it as she moved forward towards the door at the far end, the one with three heavy iron bars that blocked it from the outside and darkened wood.  
 _I have already wasted enough time with Shimura´s transformation. I need to get this done._  
She arrived at the far end and in front of the door and began to pull the bars one and one.  
"So much security. Makes sense. She has become a weak point but this is not a way to treat another human being."  
The last bar slid away without much effort to her and she grabbed around the door handle all with determination in her eyes and a serious tone.  
"I hope she hasn´t broke down from the stress."  
She opened the door and realized there was no sound in there. There was no signs of life, and the scent of death hung heavy in there.   
The cell appeared before her and the sight made Ikune sick.  
Parchments, countless of newly made parchments with scribbles and faulty faces all over them. Countless amounts of worn down pens and brushes lay in scattered disarray along with empty ink horns. Illuminated by four torches in the corners and attached so tight that they wouldn´t drop and ignite all the arcs, the content of the room came into light.  
In the middle of this cell, a single table with three piles of empty parchment and ten ink horns lined up. But the person of interest was not who she thought it was.  
The corpse of a young girl barely over four years old with ink-stained fingertips and the outer ends of her long bushy dark hair stained was strewn over the artwork carelessly. She was dead for a while, maybe a week, but before that was malnourished and severally weak and thin. The dried in black stains in her clothes made her appear as a beggar.  
In the northwestern corner of the room laid a male child who looked exactly like the little girl was well into his first month of decomposition. In the northeastern corner of the room was a woman who was four or so years dead and wasting away.  
Ikune looked down at the family and clenched her left hand slowly as she experienced hate with such intensity that anything she felt prior to this moment.  
 _Amachi, the day we decide to end this alliance, I will be personally attend to your execution._  
Ikune got down on her knees and picked up the little girl. She moved the dead girl to her brother and mother, before uniting them together for the first and last time.   
It wasn't her element, but she used a blast of fire to burn the bodies once they were holding each other.  
For all her crimes, she still couldn't stand seeing someone suffering unjustly.  
A stray thought went through her mind as fell into the meditative state completely.  
 _I just hope Joji doesn't do anything stupid now._

-

In a rather large room draped in silk curtain and several paintings of older men and women with odd-colored eyes decorated the walls. A large circular carpet covered the floor and a large double bed with red silk sheets in the far end of the room.  
Fukumoto stood by one of the largest paintings, a man in a fur robe and with long brown hair. She looked up at it with apathy and her bodyguard stood right behind her as she had been conditioned to.  
Keina turned to the right and remarked, "Your highness…"  
"Silence."  
"But…"  
She looked down at Fukumoto and could tell that she shouldn´t open her mouth. Instead she raised her voice obediently.  
"Asking for permission to speak, your highness."  
"I will allow it."  
That was a small habit that Fukumoto had with her subordinates and those in her service.  
"I advise that we should leave the fortress of the Fellowship tonight."  
"You think you can order me around, Keina?"  
"No, but I believe that they won´t stop."  
Fukumoto turned her attention towards Keina as she ogled to the right at her with emotionless eyes.  
"When did you have the right to think on my behalf? Don´t forget your place Keina."  
"Your Highness, I have been ordered to keep you alive no matter what. Even if it means that I have to think far ahead of you."  
"Don´t insult me." There was a complete lack of emotion from her as she continued in a logical tone. "I already know what to do here Keina, and I know that I won´t be harmed."  
"Your highness, please consider a retreat."  
"I never retreat. Not when the battle has already been won, so we stay until I have seen them all die."  
Keina looked down at Fukumoto and wondered in silence.  
 _You might be the brightest mind I ever saw in a human, but you don´t know anything about the world I come from. I must obey your orders. I will stay until the end._  
She straightened her back and looked up at the painting.  
"So that´s why you haven´t gone to sleep yet?"  
"I slept two days before this, so I will stay up all night."  
"But surely your summer palace would be much safer than this snake pit."  
"I never retreat. And there´s no point in traveling at night anyway. I already told you that I wanted to see this from the moment Asaka and Kudou died."  
"I see. What will you have me to do? Give me orders, your Highness."  
Fukumoto looked back at her with one eye of calculating depths and then turned back to the painting.  
"We don´t have to do a single thing. Just wait for now."

-

Three hours of vivid and lengthy explanations of what needed to be done and his own superiority in comparison with the others in the Fellowship.  
Then another two hours of how lowly the people were when he went through the undecided requests from the areas he reigned over. Letter after letter that he took time to read through, only to mock how they were written once done with one.  
"Why would I even have to bother with trash anyway? Can't they just stop wasting my time and keeping me away from my women? Or what do you think?"  
"A-"  
"Like I cared about your opinion. Keep kneeling. I wonder what I should do with this one."  
He had pretended to think through a decision and then just tore the letter in two.  
"I'll just replace them later. Malicious yokai are a good way to take out the trash, don't you agree?"  
"B-"  
"Shut up half-breed. I will probably let them suffer a little more just for fun. If only the malicious yokai could kill those pieces of filth that think they´re worthy of stealing my rights to the throne as well."  
Malicious yokai that needed to be killed or dealt with peacefully and with the towns unable to pay due to unreasonable high taxes from him, Miyake left alone to their own devices. He rarely took time to accept the requests for help from his own subjects. On his good days a single request out of twenty could be granted just because they had more potential to bring in more gold to his own funds. But the others either ended up in the trash or unanswered pile behind his throne. He picked up the next one and read it out loud with an amused and wicked smile on his face.  
"Oh, I like this one. 'Dear honorable Miyake of Mucha: Please, we beg you on our bare knees and on all fours as well. We praise your kindness and will even kiss your feet if you can humbly grant your all mighty hand and bring a hunter to our town. We beg you. The malicious yokai has already killed twenty of our citizens and we have to lock our doors in fear for our own life. Please your honorable and generous highness, please send help to our town, and we will praise you for the rest of our lives."  
He stopped for a short moment and an unsettling smile of mockery spread as he went through it again. "Well, isn´t this delightful letter? I´m almost flattered by it. So I guess that I have to…"  
He grabbed it with both hands and finished with a wicked look in his eyes. "…deny it."  
He tore the letter in two and threw them away to the sides. Kurumi clenched her hand a little and he talked away. "Seriously. They dared to have the nerve to not call me Lord? What did I expect from such trash in the first place?"  
Kurumi looked down at the floor like she had been ordered to and learned the hard way to not disobey her father. She had no choice but to listen to him no matter what.  
"It's such a burden to be of such importance sometimes. Oh, who am I kidding?! It's wonderful! And I think that even you who share half of my bloodline should know that."  
"Ye-"  
"Did I tell you to speak!?"  
Miyake´s slightly annoyed face turned into a pleased one from Kurumi´s forced silence and he began to talk away again.  
"So kill Shimura for me once he becomes a monster and if you see that little runt Chiura then kill him too. Those mines are too much for his small hands."  
Miyake sat on his throne and down at Kurumi who had been forced to kneel the entire time since she arrived.   
Kurumi wasn´t happy as she had to reply with dignity and respect in her voice. That her shadowed face frowned in annoyance and hurt pride indicated what she really wanted to say went unnoticed.  
"Yes, but I think that…"  
"Excuse me?" Miyake asked with a slightly disturbed yet wicked tone as he rose up from his throne and slowly walked over to Kurumi with his hands behind the back. Kurumi looked down at the floor and his feet as she could hear him approach. He spoke again in a much gentler yet threatening tone. "I might be mistaken, but did you say something?"  
Kurumi kept her head down and swallowed a lump in her throat as she repeated herself. "I think that…"  
"On all fours."  
Kurumi lifted her head and asked in a confused tone, "Wha-?"  
"I said…"  
She didn´t get much further as Miyake grabbed at the top of her head with one hand and sounded dead serious and arrogant.  
"…on all fours!"  
He then shoved Kurumi´s head straight down into the carpet with a muffled thump. Kurumi had been caught off guard and laid down on her stomach with the soft fabric at the right side of her face.  
Before she could rise up, Miyake stomped down on the side of her head with his left foot and looked down with a glee. Kurumi didn´t struggle back but tried to lift her head just a little bit so she could see his apathy and wicked eyes.  
"You think? Who do you think you are? Just because you have my bloodline, it doesn't mean that you are my equal. And if that wasn't bad enough, you're also a woman. Do you know what that means? It means that you have no right to speak in my presence. No right to question my orders. You don't have the right to be here without my permission and as long as you're here in Hinoiri you won´t even breathe for any other reason but to serve me. If it had been up to me, you wouldn't even have the right to have a name of your own. Have I made myself clear? You're something so weak and insignificant that you wouldn't even be capable of killing an insect with your foot, but that comes with being a woman I guess. You´re also my blood therefore…"  
He began to press her head with increased strength between each word and pressed her deeper into the carpet. A cold and wicked grin held the corners of his mouth up as he looked down at her in pure superior arrogance.  
"I OWN YOU!"  
Kurumi didn´t make a sound as she closed her eyes in pain over the ruthless treatment and he stopped after a minute of applied pressure. He still kept his foot on the side of her head as he asked in a cruel, cold voice, "So do you understand?"  
Kurumi was silent.   
"Good! Now speak."

He lifted his foot away from Kurumi´s head and she slowly rose up on shaking arms. She had a footprint on the left side of her head and had left a deep imprint of her profile in the carpet as well. She slowly began to stand up but was interrupted by Miyake once again with a demand in his tone.  
"I never said you would stop keeling, so kneel!"  
She forced herself to kneel once again and looked at him with dim eyes and a stoic face expression now.   
"Kill Shimura and Chiura if I see him."  
Miyake looked down at her with a slightly pleased grin and simply turned his back at her.  
"Took you long enough. Now stop wasting my time and leave this room."  
Kurumi looked up at him with a hidden emotion behind her eyes and got back up on her feet. She tried to get some of the dirt from her face off and once again was interrupted by Miyake who coughed.  
Kurumi flickered with her eyes for a short moment before she bowed her head forward and replied.  
"I wish you a good night honorable Lord Miyake."  
"Report back to me once the deed is done. Dismissed."  
Kurumi backed away and headed towards the only exit with calm steps and a stoic yet bruised face. She closed the door behind her and Miyake spoke to himself in amusement.  
"Now, I better deal with more important issues."  
He walked past his throne with a smug grin and his hands behind the back. The object of his interest was the door in front of him, the one with silver-plating and two carved keys in a cross over it. He pulled something out from around his neck, a black iron key and inserted it into the lock with ease. The grin grew more pleasant when he opened up the doors and the lights of candles flowed around his silhouette.  
From within this room, a series of faint hisses and strained gasps reacted to his presence along with the soft sound of sheets that moved down.  
Miyake grinned in overjoyed and selfish pleasure as he remarked to the eleven female silhouettes in his bedroom.  
"My kittens! Your master is home!"  
He closed the door behind him as he began to undress and walk towards them.

-

Kurumi stood in the corridor a dozen of meters from his door and leaned against one of the walls with one hand and lowered her head. Her eyes contained a stoic yet angered stare that grew in strength as she bit her bottom lip and the corners of her mouth shivered. The hand she used to touch the stone wall clenched slowly and she let out a small outburst of her emotions.  
She swung her fist sideways into the wall.  
A small circular impact crater appeared where she slammed her hand in and she stared down with clenched teeth. She didn´t like to be humiliated or having her pride hurt, but she could also not stand up to her father either.  
 _"You shall not kill the client."_  
She repeated another quote from her mother's teachings.  
 _"You shall honor your father and mother."_  
She clenched her teeth together and began to mutter in a hurt manner and small tears in her eyes. "Say my name. Is it really so hard to say my name?! Just once?"  
She slammed her hand in the wall again and the crater expanded a little bit. The rattle of swords and clings of metal boots approached her from behind. The closest patrol of two guards hurried in her direction and with the swords out of the scabbards.  
"Who´s there?! Who are you?"  
Kurumi´s eyes opened wide in anger and she turned around with a furious arrogance and pride. The guards stopped two meters from her and one of them remarked, "Hey, it's that Uchiha again."  
"What´s Miyake´s love-doll doing outside his quarters?"  
Kurumi displayed an expression in extreme despise and felt tempted to pull out her sword to teach these guards a lesson. She wouldn´t just stand and take such insults from those she considered to be lower than her.  
"Go back to his quarter and we won´t…" One of the guards said while he pointed his sword at her.  
"Kneel."

Kurumi´s voice contained such constricted fury that it staggered the two guards.   
One of them asked again in a little scared tone. "What di…?"  
"I said KNEEL!"  
She nailed her stare into their eyes, a stare filled with such contempt and hate that it could pierce through a tree trunk. The guards shivered and slowly fell down on their knees as her stare paralyzed them. They kneeled down and feared for their lives as they couldn´t speak in fright.  
Kurumi kept her prideful anger in a stare at them and spoke with an armor-piercing order. "On all fours and kiss the floor! You filthy commoners!"  
The guards looked up for a short moment and one of them was about to say something. "Who do-?"  
"Do it or DIE!"  
The sheer dominance and anger behind her voice forced them down on their hands and their heads down face first.   
Kurumi looked down at them and some of her wounded pride began to heal in arrogance. She breathed quickly and she spoke with a cold voice, "Good. Now forget that you saw me."  
The guards nodded and she turned her back at them as she walked towards the lower dungeons.  
She muttered something to herself as she returned to a superior facial expression.  
"Shimura first then Chiura. Will you be pleased with me then? Father?"

-

From his vantage point on a rooftop overlooking the fortress, Gavin leaned back against the wall. A single pitch black twenty-sided die with pure white numbers was idly tossed up it the air and caught by his right hand repeatedly.  
He eyed the fortress with a predatory glare.  
"Built upon abandoned relics, forgotten legends, sealed monsters and the bodies and souls of hundreds before the city was remade, is it any wonder that the area and people are so cursed? It is ripe with delusions of superiority and grandeur contaminated each of the families from the beginning and they indulged their desires and hopes on the lives of humans under their control."  
He looked at the building one final time before dismissing it.  
Gavin tossed the die once more and at seeing the number grinned in a blood thirsty manner.  
"This entire city and the places under it's control is just an overly large powder keg that is about to blow."  
He looked at the number twenty on the dice and wrapped his hand over the item.  
"And everyone knows that only Uchihas can provide the raw amount of pyromania needed for this task."

-

Joji yawned a single time as he rose up from the bed slowly and rubbed the back of his head. He looked around at the modest little room that could house fifteen people with good margins within it. A simple bed, some drawers and a log that hanged from the ceiling in a chain and with visible punch marks on it decorated it. The last one had been put up by Joji himself and served as warm-up for his training.  
There was also great disarray and mess in his room which was the first thing that met his drowsy eyes.  
"What in Jashin's name? What happened yesterday?"  
A short rehearsal of the events that gone on until the black spot in his mind, to his knowledge.  
"Arrived in Hiroiri. Training. Attend the human meeting. Something then black out."  
He rubbed his head again and Joji sat there for a couple of minutes in complete silence.  
"Nothing."  
He sighed as he slowly rose up from his bed and noticed his vest thrown over a drawer.  
"Well, Ikune would know what we're supposed to do here. I better go and find her so she can brief me about it. Oh wait, she will probably scold me again for forgetting about it. What could it have been?"  
He shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly and walked across the messy room filled with splinters from the log. One fast swipe and he grabbed his black vest with his left hand and suddenly frowned in confusion.  
"Wait, I was supposed to do something. I remember that much. What was it? Something with bodies."  
He stood there and thought with the vest at hand as he got the feeling it was important to remember just that detail.  
 _What was it?_

-

  
Sakuya had begun to notice that the number of guards decreased as she moved further within the dim hallways. The only thing in her concern for the moment was the thick and nearly maddeningly intense scent of blood that filled the hallway. It was so strong and dense that she could almost taste the blood on her tongue.  
She gulped and could feel how a hungry grin slowly twitched up in her face. The urge to destroy, fight or worse was growing along with something even more out of character for her.  
It was hard for her to care about most people, or even tolerate others, so wanting to fight hurt and even...  
Well, it's definitely not a good sign.  
 _Focus. Stay focused…_  
Another shake with her head to scatter the hazy thoughts of blood and odd hallucinations. She had nearly reached the source of the thick blood traces within this part of the fortress and needed to make up her mind.  
This was nearly a little too much for her as the residual impressions of the scenes, emotions and so on of those whose blood was spilled slowly leaked into her awareness.  
The blurring of the past, of intense residual impressions and the souls of those who passed was always troublesome for her to deal with in the present or everyday life.   
Saluya really didn't need this now.  
She could restrict herself in public but in close quarters with no attempts at appeasing the memories of whatever happened and a blood scent that could be cut through with a knife was almost too much for her to handle.   
Sakuya held up her right hand to her head and looked bothered over some pain in it. She moved to the left and leaned against the wall for support.  
It felt like someone drove a spike into her ear and out through the other side. It maddened her to a certain degree; she wanted to let loose and satisfy her curiosity and their need for revenge so badly. It drove her mad from it and the hallway filled up with a dense red morning fog along the floor.  
It was darker than the Sharingan red tint, and whatever it was began to affect her sense of reason as she snapped in and out from the trance.  
"Sakuya?"  
Tobirama's voice pulled her out of the trance and the fog faded away drastically.  
She looked up to see him watching her with with great concern and curiosity.  
 _Tobirama is pretty worried, huh._  
Another shake of her head to scatter the hazy thoughts of blood and odd hallucinations and she was back in the game. They had nearly reached the source of the thick blood traces within this part of the fortress and needed to make up her mind.  
She walked away from the wall and Tobirama followed her cautiously.

-

Joji had begun to kick the log for practice in rhythmic kicks from the side. It was a way for him to focus his thoughts and something he enjoyed as well. He knew that he had forgotten something that was important and on his own regard since he only forgot things he chose to.  
"What was it? I´m sure there was something."  
He continued stare at the hanging log which wobbled in the air from side to side.  
"Why do I have a feeling that I forgot something important than that?"  
He stopped for a while to rest his leg and went at the log with his fists instead.  
"Something that human Mizutama wanted."

-

Sakuya stopped and looked up at the door in front of her. It was made with dark hinges and  thick wood like the ones in a dungeon.  
It was difficult to stay calm and collected now as the blood scent appeared as a red wall in front of her eyes. It whispered to her. It wanted her to enter and drown in the delightful feelings and secrets it offered.   
She waved with a hand to scatter the illusion in front of her and searched for the door handle. It had not been the first time she had to discard these illusions and impressions as they crept up on her most of her life. It was usually only in yokai infested areas, places with tons of residual impressions and energy, and in general were places where great horrors and misfortune occurred.  
Sakuya had simply discarded these as just that, illusions of a tired mind. It was better to focus on that being illusions that the Sharingan couldn't break than actual scenes of what happened before.  
Ignorance is bliss and all that.  
One fast thought as she grabbed the handle and pulled the entire door outwards.  
 _Please be cool and not be something that would fuck me up._

-

Joji´s next kick broke the log in two from extensive and repeated damage inflicted on it. He spoke with annoyed realization as he reached a conclusion.  
"Shit! I was supposed to do that too!"  
He kicked one half of the log gently, making it roll across the floor. He remarked with a slightly guilty and amused tone, "But then again, they´re not exactly going anywhere either. I guess it won´t do any harm to let them stay where they are for a little longer."

-

The door stood wide opened and let out the light of torches from within the chamber and over the two children. A shadow grew behind her and appeared on the opposite wall in the hallway and reached her original length. Sakuya didn´t move a single inch from the doorway as she froze up in the middle of the doorway.  
Her eyes were wide open in utter terror and shock as her half-opened mouth shivered with barely visible contractions. She was frozen in place from the instant sight that greeted her within this room, and the only thing that moved were the eyes that had contracted down in sheer horror over it.  
A bathtub sat in the center of the room, white as marble and rested on four feet decorated like the paws of wolves, glimmered faintly between the dried in red stains on its surface. Around it, numerous small naked bodies hanged upside down by their feet, gagged and bound with their tiny hands behind the back. They all had a large vertical cut across their throats and been bled out just like pigs in a slaughterhouse, all far beneath the biological border to adulthood and with faces frozen in pain. Blood red footprints that lead to and from the tub marked the floor in a dried in pattern from countless baths. The thick stench of death and blood filled the air just like water and Sakuya held her breath as it nearly overwhelmed her.  
This hadn´t been the thing that shocked her to such degree though as the room filled up with red light, ghostly apparitions of thousands of children, prayers and whispers. Sakuya held her head in a weak attempt to keep them out.  
Distantly, she was aware of Tobirama paling beside her and him trying to suppress his reaction to the sight. He succeeded in not vomiting but was noticeably shaky.  
"How could anyone do this to another human being?" Tobirama whispered in confusion, his gaze never leaving the bodies before him.  
It was humbling to see that Tobirama and yet to become desensitized to violence and the random chance of the world. A large part of her wanted to keep him like that and to keep him alive.  
"Simple. They don't think they are humans anymore."  
Tobirama looked at her, surprise written on his expression.   
He waited for her to finish her thought and didn't have to wait long.  
"They treated the world as their plaything, making those under their protection beg and plead for aid like they were gods. These people are far less than human, worse than mindless monsters hand yokai. They will learn of their own mortality down to their last guards this evening," Sakuya solemnly promised.  
Sakuya herself had suspected this was a possibility from the beginning. The knockoff Naruto universe version of Elizabeth Báthory was a surprise but honestly she was expecting a lot worse.  
As if to point out that sentiment, the red light returned and it was accompanied by distant whispers and pleas.  
Sakuya shrugged the sensation off as best she could. By ignoring it. "So much for a fountain of youth."  
A set of metal clad steps approached them from the hallway and a man´s voice sent ripples in the red world she saw. "Hey you! How did you get here?!"  
Sakuya didn´t turn around and felt a heavy hand on her right shoulder. She turned her head and looked straight up at the man, but it wasn´t an armor she saw now.  
It could only be described as a humanoid black thing with no eyes and the lower half of the face turned into a massive maw with three rows of fangs that looked down at her. This sight combined with the red light and the whispers and pleading of thousands of children pushed her to the edge of her sanity.  
The creature slurred in a distorted voice that sounded like a blade jammed slowly forced down it´s throat.  
"This is Mizutama´s private room. No children allowed here unless she says so."  
Sakuya shrugged his hand off in primeval frightened panic as she still heard the whispers of children in her ears. She slipped down on the floor and landed in a huge blood puddle with her back. A second guard appeared in the door-opening and the first one turned around at it.  
"Go and get a couple of the guys. It looks like two of Milady´s supplies got loose somehow."  
"On it."  
Sakuya looked down on her hands and the blood on them with fright. Voices began to blend into each other in a nightmarish disharmony as her primal survial instincts were about to get the upper hand.  
She had never been so frightened before, or at least since she started this game. Her emotions began to run wild from the stress.  
"I don´t feel so good," Sakuya repeated.  
That single tiny voice silenced all the others and her eyes went dim as all rational thought was overwhelmed. The thick fog of blood, the emotional shock over the sight and the horror of centuries of abuse and death in the build got to her. She couldn´t think any longer than short sentences as her body began to grow and distort. Bones cracked, flesh expanded and muscles grew as she stood up on her feet with golden predator eyes in her changing face.  
The guard still looked the other direction, heard steps from behind and made a quick turn towards them and stared down at a little girl.  
She wasn't a little girl. This was something else. It might look like a little girl, and talk like a little girl, but it sure as hell wasn't one.  
The nine tail outlines whipping back and forth, the upright ears on her head, the shifting teeth, the feral eyes, long sharp claws and the slitted red eyes were proof of that.  
Sakuya looked up at him with subtly glowing eyes, relentless anger and intense insanity. She immediately grabbed around his helmet and snapped his neck like a dandelion before he even could react.  
He fell down at the ground and the white haired girls left arm swiped at him in a crescent shape. A swift blade of wind struck his body and it tore up the armor like nothing as the insides of the guard appeared with warm fumes from the diagonal cut in his abdomen.   
The other guard appeared with ten more of the night shift, only ten meters from the door.  
But they all froze in an instant as an unhinged and so terribly amused laughter echoed across the area. It sounded like something born from nightmares as it reverberated in their helmets. It traveled through the entire labyrinth of hallways within the Fortress and didn´t stop in its ferocity and raw promise of retribution.  
Joining the laughter was a drastic change in her presence that made her seem all the more dangerous.

-

Several things happened all at once as the demonic laughter pierced through the silent night.  
Keina turned around with wide opened and alert eyes as she grabbed around the handle to her sword. Fukumoto remained with a dull and bored look but with an excited faint smile that now appeared. "Lock the doors for now."  
Mizutama woke up abruptly with a facial mask of healing ointment and looked around in complete drowsy confusion. "Huh? Who dares disrupt my necessary beauty sleep?"  
Joji got so startled and surprised by it that he took a couple of large steps and accidentally slipped on the other half of his training log. He hit the floor face first and didn´t even complain about it. "What the-?"  
Miyake looked up for a whole three seconds before he disregarded it as nothing and continued to "play" with his harem.  
Madara and Shukaku stopped in their tracks as they just finished killing five guards and stashing them in a side room.   
Madara focused on the unrestrained killing intent he felt indirectly once before and felt his theory of her true identity was confirmed. He shivered as the dark, oppressive and ungodly essence of the killing intent flooded the entire fortress before leaking out into the city surrounding it.  
"It would seem that things are about to become very interesting. It's been a while since I actually had a challenge."  
Amachi woke up in the throne he fell asleep in and immediately gave orders to his body guards. "They made the first move. Gather my private forces at once."  
Ikune didn´t notice a single thing as she still burning the corpse of the poor family.  
Every yokai within the tower could feel the displeased inhuman aura that now spiked up on their perception and prepared for war.  
All the while, Sakuya's laughter continued and terrified every single human within range of the Fortress.  
The laughter came to an abrupt halt and the two children walked out of the room with calm steps. The guards unsheathed their swords but couldn´t hide the fact that their hands trembled in fear of this deranged little girl.  
Sakuya looked in their direction with an aura that lack any inhibitions or restraints, free to take and do whatever her desires drove her to and to let every single inch of her frustrations and hate loose on anyone in her way.  
They had committed an unforgivable crime towards all innocence and humanity.  
They needed to be punished.  
She took one step forward and the guards took two steps backwards.  
Sakuya inhaled deeply before leaping towards her prey.  
"Murderers!" She shrieked with distorted vocal cords, attacked and by doing so she had set the powder keg aflame after adding more fuel to the fire.

-

Within the library, Madara sighed and leaned back in the throne. His eyes darted about the screens in front of him depicting the starting battle and he would admit to feeling left out of the Carnage and fighting. It was going to be a bloodbath.  
"And so it begins."


	7. Transient Desires

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

The loud insane laughter sent the entire fortress into high alert with the private forces of the Fellowship. The night shifts woke up the rest of their respective factions of military that were employed to serve their own masters. Mizutama´s forces where disorganized from the sudden assault and tried to counter the resistance head on with superior numbers. The night shift held the front line in order to buy the heavy guards some time to advance and make preparations for the patrolling archers. But as the lighter troops arrived at the scene of disturbance, they quickly came to realize the grave danger they stood in front of.  
A number of ten guards confronted Sakuya and Tobirama with two swordsmen in front. They shouted and reinforced their moral as they aimed to stab children in the chest and finish it with a swift decapitation.  
Sakuya swung with her right arm in a high swipe towards the first one´s neck. The movement extracted the flow of air in the guards lungs via the nostrils and mouth, and she made sure to prevent any new intake of breath by forming a ball of air around the head, dooming him to suffocation. The second guard swung high with his sword at her from behind in a short surprise attack. She threw up fast gusts of wind close to her body with another motion upwards and the attack was pshed aside.  
Tobirama leered in his direction and stabbed the tip of his borrowed sword through the open visor of the man's helmet. It went straight through the man´s head and his right eyeball. Blood splattered from behind the visor and a heavy cling shivered from the man's sword which hit the ground.  
Sakuya nodded her head as she picked up the sword. "Thanks for the assist, Tobirama."  
Tobirama cut down the closest target, a slight trembling in his hands before he mentally stabilized himself. "You should be more careful, Sakuya."  
The little girl smiled cheerfully at the little boy. The cute sight was ruined slightly due to the light splattering of blood on her face due to someone's throat being cut.  
"I could let my guard down precisely because I knew you had my back."  
Sakuya lowered her raised arm slightly as three more guards went at her with weapon raised and in full battle cries.  
Sakuya turned her head at them with fierce and wicked eyes as she shoved the closest straight into the wall with a blast of wind before finishing him off with a single stab each into his heart and throat. The second guard she paralyzed with focused killing intent mixed. When the man dropped the blade in shock and grasped his head, she pummeled his jaw and head into mush. Teeth were caught in her skin from the dead man, but she didn't have time to take them out yet.  
Kicking off her shoes and socks, Sakuya focused on the blood soaked stonework around them. With great difficulty, she ignored the hand prints on the floors and walls, the bloody dragmarks on the floor and the sense of death. Deep breathing exercises helped her become more clear headed and she stomped with her right foot. A sharp pillar of stone pierced the ground underneath the third guard, went up his butt and inner organs, and out his mouth.   
She made sure he would be alive for some time despite his impalement.  
The other guards retreated back into the hallway but were all wiped out by the two friends fast and merciless attacks.  
The guards didn´t even stand a chance as their armors were cut wide open and their insides spilled out all over the floor. The few that weren't sliced into like meat were burned alive, the metal armor cooking their flesh in the process. Screams for help died abruptly in pain as their bodies were gutted like fishes by her wild slaughter.  
Another cuirass was torn up by her bloodstained hands and she felt how her strength slowly increased by the deaths around her.  
Sakuya felt that being healed or strengthened by residual and death or destructive energy was probably a bad sign of things to come but couldn't find it in her to care.  
All that mattered was to follow her emotions no matter what awaited for her.  
The fighting was done for the moment and Tobirama looked at her strangely.  
"You're crying."  
Sakuya blinked and raised a blood covered hand to her face and felt her tears wash away the blood off her face.  
"Why? I don't understand..." Her voice quivered and she hated this show of weakness.  
"These were the first people you ever killed, right?"  
Sakuya nodded her head, unsure of what to say. Her heart was tense, beating frantically but her mind was terribly clear. There were no regrets and there were no doubts.  
He took her hand in his and carefully removed the teeth from her hand. Once they were free from her skin, the body regenerated itself without any signs of injury.  
"I'm not good with people or comforting them. That's something my older brother is better at than me," Tobirama admitted. It must have pained him alot to admit that but he continued without any sign that it bothered him. He looked down at her hand instead of her face. "It will become easier over time. It won't hurt as much and you can move past it. For now though, just, focus on surviving."  
Sakuya knew what he was trying to say but she couldn't help but tease him. "Are you flirting with me, Tobirama? Do you have a crush on me?"  
Tobirama grimaced as if the idea appalled him. "One, we are far too young. Two, we are friends. Three, is this really the time to joke like that?"  
"And yet you are holding my hand like it was the most prized thing you ever saw," Sakuya dryly pointed out.  
Tobirama dropped her hand like it bit him.

-

The head for Amachi´s private military force directed his orders around to his subordinates as they equipped their plate armors and lances. The state of alert that now ruled the fortress was standard procedure in case of yokai attacks within. They prepared to form battle formations composed of swordsmen in the front, spearmen in the middle and archers at the far end of them for the highest advantage.  
In a rather large hallway, a number of soldiers had assembled to receive their orders and kept their focus on ground level. Scramble of metal, swordedges and serious chats that turned the force into a loud murmur filled the hall.  
"Where´s the report!? We need confirmation of the location and nature of the intruder!"  
"Assemble the teams in groups of twenty each and send scouts into the hallways."  
"Three teams have been sent to secure the main entrances of our master´s fortress."  
"Keep those doors locked at all times! We can´t afford to fail Amachi."  
The men were all busy with securing the perimeters and didn´t notice the two figures who sat on the support pillars right beneath the ceiling.  
Madara and Shukaku looked down at the hundreds of men that rallied in the room. Madara had crossed his legs and arms in great consideration as he started to decide their next move. Shukaku, on other hand, smirked in amusement over all the commotion.   
"These people don't slack off! First time I've seen civilians so engaged in an upcoming battle. They're like a professional army!" The tanuki commented in a casual tone that wouldn´t be heard over the loud rattle of metal and orders.  
Madara looked down and returned his answer with a serious tone. "Of course they are. These rulers have more than enough resources to fund and train their own private armies. These aren´t the same kind of law enforcement that smaller towns are in possession of. These people are soldiers that possess the tactical ability and the leadership of hired commanders to assure victory within their ranks. They have the best weaponry and armors that are more durable then the common people have access to and legally permitted to use. They have experience and loyalty towards the ones who employed them as long as they pay, so to say."  
Shukaku turned his attention back one of the soldiers asked the commander something.  
"What will be the proper course of action be if the others in the Fellowship request for reinforcements?"  
The commander, a man with decorated plate armor and the helmet shaped as a wolf's roaring skull, turned his head in his direction. He looked down at him and replied with a short and straightforward response of authority.  
"Ignore them and keep the doors sealed. Our orders are to only protect the Amachi bloodline at any cost."  
"And if the others break in?"  
"Then their forces will be considered an invading army and be disposed of at once. We will hold the line no matter who our opponent is."  
The soldier headed towards one of the doors in the hall to enforce his orders and the commander returned to look over a map of the fortress, all to make the strategic moves that would secure their hold of this wing.  
"Not much for allies, huh?" Shukaku remarked dully.  
"It's not a surprise. The members of the Fellowship don't trust anyone they can't control and will do anything to get an upper hand. If one hired a soldier then the rest would do the same and hire even more to get the advantage back. If they hired swordsmen then the others would hire archers to counter. Horsemen get countered by lancers and assassins against each other as they try to save their own hides. Common, if weak, tactics for civilians." Madara said while he kept his eyes down at the soldiers who discussed with the commander.  
Shukaku looked down and they both knew that they wouldn´t be able to get down there without immediate detection. He tanuki looked up for a short moment in confusion and then turned his head back at Madara once again.  
"If these fellowship guys are so paranoid and in possession of such a large force then why don't they simply bribe all the other soldiers and go from wing to wing and kill the others?"  
Madara turned his head at the yokai and shook it slowly. "That wouldn't work for several reasons. One, there are too many soldiers to simply be bribed; two, the fortress is designed in a way that makes such a massive assault impossible to perform and three, these people are loyal to their own masters to such a degree that they wouldn´t get any benefits in being bribed."  
"What do you mean by the fortress is designed in a way?"  
"Just as it sounds. Take a good look at the map that the commander down there so conveniently rolled out down below."  
Shukaku looked down and saw the commander discuss something with a few subordinates. In front of them, a map had been rolled out of the interior of the building and its sections. He held his eyes on it for a couple of seconds and then let out a satisfied smile.  
"I get it. That's pretty smart!"  
On the pale and yellowed parchment, a cut through of the tower had been presented and the familiar form that it possessed was revealed. The fortress was shaped like a wagon wheel on the inside and divided in ten equal parts.  
Shukaku began to chuckle darkly as Madara explained the likely reasons of it to him.  
"As you can see, each part belongs to a certain aristocrat within this place. There are only a couple of entrances that lead to the neighboring spurs and one towards the area in the middle. This area can be considered a neutral zone and not large enough to house a total force above three hundred men, hence why it´s unsuitable to use as an invasion route for others. The Fellowship has also been forced into a stand-down since if one member decided to invade with his or her force then their own territory would remain unguarded for the neighbors who would use the commotion for a coup. But this will also lead to a chain of events where all members would send their forces in a circle and both become attacked and attack at the same time. A complete eradication would occur in that case. That´s the reason to why they haven´t used superior military force to eradicate each other."  
They watched the soldiers rush around as panicked ants for another couple of minutes before Shukaku looked at Madara again.  
"Are we just going to sit here and wait until Sakuya has her fill of mayhem?"  
"No. It would be a waste of time." They both knew there would be no end then.  
"So we will be fighting our way through them?"  
Madara looked down at the soldiers and waited with his response as he tapped his fingers on the forearms.  
"No. We need to secure a way out and through this place first."  
"If you don´t mind…"  
Shukaku´s smug tone made Madara to turn his head at him. Shukaku had a cocky grin as he pulled something out from within his pockets.  
It was a small spherical object that shined with an inner light.  
"You really dared to steal one of her her flash bombs?!"  
Shukaku waved with a free hand at Madara in an amused manner as he replied, "Oh no. I just borrowed a couple of them before I accepted the deal with those two."  
"A couple?"  
Shukaku stood up. "Don´t bother with the details and just be glad that I brought them instead."  
Before Madara could say anything else Shukaku raised his voice and bellowed with an excited tone.  
"Good morning…"  
He channeled chakra into the sphere and then threw the sphere into the center of the room. They both raised one arm in front of their eyes while Shukaku shouted at the top of his lungs in excitement, a yell that got all the guards to look up and notice the small object that flew in the air towards them.   
"…SUNSHINE!"  
The entire hall filled up with such intense sunlike light that all the soldiers within it were blinded immediately. They shouted in pain and covered their eyes over the sudden loss of sight as they tripped and fell over each other with confused shouts.  
Madara noticed the group was all together and could be largely eliminated with a single Majestic Destroyer Flame. Shukaku could take out the remaining nearby soldiers while he finished off the ones at a distance.  
The humanized tailed beast nodded his head and after the first wave of fire jutsu from Madaea roasted the people below them, Shukaku leapt down and started to crush the survivors to death with sand.  
Once they had finished the massacre there, the two continued to the area where they sensed some weak yokai masquerade as humans.  
It was a hall similar to the one they observed but with the difference in the nature of the soldiers. All of them were dressed in armors that despite their weight didn´t burden them at all. All soldiers twisted around with confused looks in their faces over the two newcomers before they noticed their auras and immediately dropped their human disguises in a battle formation.

The sudden appearance of Animal appendages proved they were shapeshifters. Bestial eyes glowed in predatory faces filled the two hundred yokai soldiers that Shimura personally requested in return for his silence.  
An army of yokai, with their undying loyalty aimed towards their master and trained in the arts of war.  
Madara looked around at the crowd of hostiles and began to laugh manically in excitement for a few moments before falling deadly still.   
"This will be an adequate warm up."  
The yokai made the first move and Madara still laughed as he charged straight at them in turn.

-

Keina looked back to the east and looked a little more nervous now over the presence of two new auras. She turned towards the young Lady Fukumoto who now sat down behind the desk that belonged to her late father. Her small and thin body in combination with the oversized chair that looked like it could embrace around her created an unsettling picture.  
This had been her father's office before the accident that took his life abruptly. Keina didn't know the details around it, but the fact that the current Fukumoto hadn´t even shed a single tear at his funeral said more than enough. Small piles of letters that contained requests from her territories about ninja and malicious yokai rested in an organized way with ten letters in each pile. A black feather pencil along with an ink horn rested at the opposite side for signing them.  
But that wasn´t what had her interest.  
Fukumoto had instead put a circular map over the tower in front of her instead. Chess pieces from dozens of sets were laid over it and made it resemble a war map, as she stood and marked the chain of events.  
"Requesting permission to speak your Highness…" Keina asked in a obedient tone.  
Fukumoto looked up at her with the usual emotionless expression and dull eyes as she answered. "Permission granted. What is it Keina?"  
"I noticed four mnew auras inside the fortress. They might pose a threat."  
"Four new? Tell me… are they bishops or knights?"  
Keina looked down at Fukumoto who held a pair of bishops from a chess game between her finger in her left hand and two knights in the left, all with a bored expression in a calculating manner.  
"There are one of each. There is also one queen and one rook. The queen I believe is a royal yokai, or even a ruler, but she's not familiar to me."  
"Positions?"  
"The bishop and knight entered Shimura main hall from Amachi´s area. The queen and the rook in Mizutama´s dungeons has advanced to the west and butchered another ten men. They will soon reach the junction point that leads to the main hall and Mizutama's occupation area."  
Fukumoto removed a dark tower on the map then replaced it with a pure black queen and a pure black rook before removing another five white pawns of the board in response to the later edit.  
Fukumoto put the knight and bishop at one of the wheel´s large areas along with a number of black pawns that lingered within it. Several other black pawns had been placed around the map along with hundreds of white pawns to represent humans.   
"Has anything else changed since the last time I checked?" Fukumoto asked in her usual emotionless voice.  
Keina fell silent as she closed her eyes and used sensing to check. She could see every single trace of chakra within this fortress, illuminating it like a tree full of fireflies. She could tell the exact number of malicious yokai, yokai, ninja and even rulers that currently visited the fortress. It had been a necessary skill in order to keep her master safe from any harm, as Fukumoto had requested in exchange for her silence.  
"The ritual with Shimura has been completed and he now rests in his own private dungeons."  
Fukumoto turned the white king in Shimura's area into a black one.  
"Amachi keeps his body guards close to his family´s private area. One stands by his side. It's Tohru, and he hasn´t moved at all."  
At the map, a white King stood with a dark bishop and several black towers around a couple of room with white pawns around it.  
Fukumoto looked up at Keina and asked, "And what about Miyake?"  
"From the odd auras, I can say with great certainty that he´s with his harem and well I think you already know."  
Keina refused to give further details as she herself found it embarrassing and plain disturbing with his taste for women. Fukumoto just discarded it as nothing  
"Like I care who he decides to hound round with. That wasn´t what I asked for. Where's his doll?"  
"Oh. She´s heading towards Chiura´s area, Gato and his entire forces are dead and that´s all."  
Fukumoto looked down at the battle map and didn´t display any emotion as she tapped one of the white pawns on her own part of it. Keina looked down and had been around her master long enough to know what each piece represented.  
We have three hundred soldiers, thirty high commanders, me, and then her as our white queen.  
She looked to the area to the left of Fukumoto´s as she began to go counterclockwise in her thoughts.  
Kudou has two hundred fifty soldiers, twenty five high commands and a squad of fifty malicious yokai along with a ballista. There is no one to lead his forces.  
Next area that lacked a king.  
Akagi has his entire force of four hundred soldiers shared between the other three aristocrats of his region but at the time being hold in his area. The best soldiers gold could buy and were pure blooded as he so obsessively requested.  
The next one with a bloodstained white queen.  
Mizutama has three hundred soldiers, twenty commanders and her staff of medic nins to her service. A couple of corrupt beings as pets along with the recipe to create them in exchange for her silence. But the question is if she brought them along or not.  
The next area that only contained a few pawns.  
Neutral hallway that leads out from the fortress and waiting hall for the guests they invite. Thirty guards along with fifty archers.  
Next one with a white king that been dipped halfway in ink.  
Miyake… a hundred fifty guards and his personal harem.  
Next one with a black king that looked gnawed on.  
Chiura… His personal guard along with multiple corrupt beings and himself of course. He only trusts his own countrymen and himself.  
Next one was Amachi´s area.  
One of the most wellguarded ones. Two hundred of the very elite to his along with Noble yokai that have been offered to him in exchange for his silence. And he's a commander of war as well. He wouldn't just stand by the side and watch like the others in the Fellowship. His soldiers will receive orders from him personally.  
Next one with the new black king and an army of black pawns.  
Shimura. His new status and three hundred malicious yokai. Safely locked away until he can take command of them again. No human guards there.  
She had nearly reached the end and commented about the last area with a white king and a few white pawns.  
Gato. Fifty human guards and probably the safest area in the whole fortress. Thick double doors in every junction and can be sealed off entirely as a sanctuary from us. Too bad he and his forces are already dead.  
The circle had reached the end and she looked up at Fukumoto who considered the next move.  
"Notify me in case something drastic happens. Until then we will remain here and only lock the doors to the connecting areas."  
"Your Highness! The queen is heading in our direction."  
"Not a problem. It's more likely that it will clean Mizutama´s area before that happens and then there´s Kudou´s and Akagi´s areas as well."  
She put her hands together as to consider something and then stated, "Notify me when another major piece has been removed from the map."  
 _It´s all a game to you, isn´t it?_  
Keina kept these thoughts to herself and noticed something strange.  
"Asking for permission to speak."  
"Granted."  
"My apologies your Highness, but why aren´t our royal yokai allies on the strategic map?"  
Fukumoto turned her eyes at Keina and replied in a superior tone that still sounded emotionless. "They´re unreliable. Unless they engage the enemy directly or decide to turn against us then I would rather not have them in my plans."  
"They can help you."  
"No. They stated at the beginning of the Alliance that they would let us handle this war ourselves and besides, we can´t force them to act. It has to be their own choice."  
Keina looked to the side and seemed to understand Fukumoto´s point.  
"Tell me only when they decide to act on their own free will."  
"Will do, my Highness."  
"Fine. Now let's see how long it will take until the pieces been removed from our political game."  
They both looked down at the black knight that been positioned closed to Chiura´s territory and Fukumoto moved it a little closer.

-

Kurumi walked the dim hallways with her claymore sheathed and her chin raised high and proud as she refused to show any mercy after her treatment by her father. Any guard she accidently ran into had to kneel and apologize to her in an extravagant way to not induce her aristocratic wrath upon them.  
It was so frustrating to her since she was forbidden by her father to speak about her origin to anyone, all to avoid the potential political disaster that would occur. It would be a disaster if any of Miyake´s habits reached their eyes as he would be one of the greatest sinners. But the fact that he was treated women as simple toys for his own pleasure and discarded them once he grew bored wasn´t the problem. It was the mere thought that one of the Fellowship would have a bloodline limit holder as a daughter that would cause a uproar. It would give him trouble and Kurumi would have been the cause of it if her father got into deeper problems with the rest of the world.  
She didn´t want to do that to him, as her pride forbid her from removing the source of its existence.  
She still had a father and an aristocrat to make it even better.  
His orders where to be carried out, or she would be discarded like a piece of trash.  
Kurumi arrived at the entrance and noticed a group of soldiers who were in the middle of reinforcing it, all according to the orders that been given out by the commanders that Miyake hired to fight for him. Her own father believed that war with trash should be fought with trash and not by the hands of an aristocrat. Kurumi could only agree as she from her own experiences knew how lowly the commoners really were.  
She held her head up high and proud as she decided to mark her superiority over the soldiers.  
They noticed her arrival and raised their swords by reflex but they lowered them in slight suspicion as they saw who it was.  
"What´s she doing he-"  
Their voices mumbled in despise over that a bloodline limit inheritor moved through the honorable halls of the Fellowship. Kurumi inhaled in frustration over this and interrupted them midsentence with arrogance and domination.  
"Silence you commoners! Hear my command and open these doors to grant me passage!"  
"Who do yo-?"  
"You have no right to speak in my presence! Kneel and ask for forgiveness unless you wish for severe punishment!"  
Her voice contained such tranquil pride and anger that the other guards slowly staggered and got down on their knees out of fear of her. Kurumi didn´t smirk but her arrogance slipped out through her dark eyes as she enjoyed this. The guards remained on their knees as she could see how much of a strain it put them on from the weight of their armors. Their voices sounded insulted as they forced themselves to apologize.  
"We apologize even if you don´t."  
Kurumi quickly unsheathed her blade and held it out so the tip landed a mere inch from the guard´s face. He opened his eyes widely in fear as she looked down with pure and concentrated angry arrogance.  
"Watch your tongue commoner."  
The guard silenced immediately and the incident wasn´t repeated again in fear. Kurumi seemed satisfied for now and spoke with a voice of complete authority.  
"You asked me who I am, didn´t you commoner? Then allow me to enlighten your pitiful and simple minds. I´m…"  
She held back the words she wanted to say and had to settle for a white halftruth. "…I´m your superior and handpicked by the Honorable Lord Miyake to lead his military troops in the time of a crisis."  
The guards just looked completely dumbfounded and in a total disbelief over the mere thought.   
They bowed their heads down and replied in submission. "Understoo-"  
"Open that door and let me through! I have wasted enough time with you commoners."  
The guards stood up on aching legs and immediately pulled of the reinforcements to let her pass. The doubledoors opened up and revealed the next hallway that would lead into Chiura´s territory.  
Kurumi continued to order the guards around as she went ahead without a much as a look at them.  
"Close the door and prepare for my return."  
"Anything els-"  
"No! Just close the door! Why are these commoners incompetent?"  
She didn´t need to say that twice as the guards gladly followed that order to get rid of her. The doors closed behind Kurumi and she remarked to herself.  
"I think I´ll deal with his forces first and maybe cripple Chiura. It would only be easier once I return from the execution of Shimura."  
She sheathed her sword but kept her hand on the handle as she could feel something lurk further ahead of her. She didn´t show any fear in her eyes, only a pride that wouldn´t budge for anything and a determination to get through with it.  
Five minutes of a fast run into the hallways and she encountered a small patrol of soldiers that were on their own way to enforce an important crossroad. Some of them held lances in their hands along with a short sword by their sides. One look in Kurumi´s direction and they all immediately aimed their spears at her.  
"Halt! Identify yourse-"  
"SILENCE!"  
Kurumi´s voice silenced the soldiers and they backed away for a short moment but kept their lances pointed at her. Kurumi now held the handle to her sword in a firm grip as she spoke with the voice of arrogance and authority.  
"I, Kurumi Uchiha command you! Drop your weapons and surrender immediately!"  
The guards looked at each other in confusion and pretended they didn´t hear the last part. They even replied in a mockery over the situation as they pointed their lances directly at Kurumi and moved closer for their attack.  
"Like we would take orders from a -"  
Before the sentence even could get finished, Kurumi pulled out her sword in the blink of an eye and swiped it one single time. The lances got cut through behind the spearheads like they had been made of parchment.  
The small number of spearheads hit the ground and the soldiers immediately dropped the broken lances in favor of their swords.  
"Kneel!" Kurumi demanded with her usual prideful expression.  
The soldiers didn´t listen to her and she one of her eyebrows twitched.  
"I said kneel!"  
Kurumi swung with her sword from right to the left at their kneecaps and cut through them with ease. The men screamed in unimaginable pain as the pieces clashed against each other from the weight and blood squirted out from the holes in their armors.  
"You bi…"  
"You have no right to speak to me commoners."  
The seven soldiers fell down on their wounded knees and another explosion of pain blew up in their heads. Some of them tilted over to the side and held their ruined knees with both their hands as they cursed Kurumi in painful anger.  
"You bitch! I'll kill you for this!"  
Kurumi looked down at the whining men who continued to throw curses after her as they now would be crippled for life. Kurumi didn´t care about it. Her empathy for the world had run out long time ago. Instead the soldiers raised their swords and held them out on their own throats.  
"You won´t escape this. The blood on your blade and our bodies will be the proof of what you done."  
"Idiots! This would only prove that you´re just that."  
"What did you sa-"  
"I don´t have to repeat myself for the likes of you. Lord Miyake has granted me complete amnesty for my actions within this fortress. Go ahead and slice your own worthless throats. Kill yourselves! It would save me the effort."  
The soldiers looked up at her on their broken legs and bared their teeth at her in their helmets. They raised their blades and Kurumi kept her eyes on them as they made their decision.  
"Either way, we will just be food for Lord Chiura´s dogs now. Rather not be here when that happens. May you turn into dog food, bitch!"  
They pulled their swords over in a fast horizontal move and blood squirted out over the necks to their cuirasses. They collapsed and died shortly after from bloodloss.  
Kurumi kept her eyes up and remarked to herself, "Dogs? Since when did that glorified miner get dogs?"  
She shrugged it off in serious arrogance as she walked right over the bodies without a second look at them. She knew from experience of this place that Chiura was strict and only kept those that could fight around him. These men also came from the Land of Earth and would never betray him since they were paid off so generously by Chiura. It wouldn´t be much of a surprise that he would keep dogs around him as well.  
After all, dogs are man´s most loyal companion.  
Kurumi looked up and noticed an incoming aura that approached her in high speed. She snorted in contempt as the hostile aura stopped two meters from her and growled.  
A wolf, twice its usual size with enlarged bones and muscles that appeared in gaps of the fur and eyes filled with wild glow and slit pupils. The aura spoke its clear language, a corrupt being born from a creature fed with low ranked yokai blood and on patrol duty, trained to follow certain commands.  
The wolf growled with distorted and dark sounds as the large claws scraped the floor in preparation. Kurumi looked back at the dead soldiers and reached a conclusion.  
 _Drawn here by blood from the commoners._   
The wolf drooled heavily as it bared its teeth and prepared to leap out at her while ignorant of the already unsheathed blade.  
Kurumi sighed in annoyance and announced with pride. "I, Kurumi Uchiha, command you…"  
The wolf leapt at her with the huge maw wide open and paws raised to shred her. Kurumi tensed her eyes into it and shouted as she quickly swung her sword.  
"…die!"  
An animalistic yelp from the wolf cut short and flesh torn apart by the heavy blade that shed a spray of blood across the wall. The fury body of the corrupt wolf hit the ground at once and she swiped with her sword a second time to wipe out the blood that flowed down along it. A small spray of blood drops decorated the opposite wall and she stomped down on the corrupt beings head in superiority.  
She heard something else in the distance, a man´s voice that echoed between the walls of the hallway.  
"Release the dogs!"  
A dozen filthier auras headed in her direction and the clatter of claws along with aggressive growls increased in strength as they approached. Kurumi walked over the furry body and raised her blade and chin high as she leaned a little backwards and crossed her sword arm over her chest in preparations for a swing. The dogs approached within her range of sight and some of them had muscles visible through the gaps in their skin from the corruption that turned them. Kurumi just shook her head in arrogance and pride as she prepared to battle in these conditions.  
One dog down, one hundred left.

-

The soldiers assembled in the large hall and barricaded the huge doors that lead down to the dungeons. Four units with ten men each wouldn´t return again and they did their best to keep the monsters in human flesh that rampaged down below locked in, or at least made it turn and head towards the main hallway instead.  
They had been paid to protect their lady at all costs, but some of them wondered if they really were paid enough to face the creature that now went on a rampage in the dungeons. One of them turned toward one of the few soldiers who managed to flee from it.  
"What did it look like?"  
The other one replied in fear and shivered uncontrollably while doing so.  
"Oh, you will see soon enough."  
"It´s HERE!"  
One of the doors wasn´t closed entirely yet as they kept a lookout for the intruder and the guards noticed something that couldn´t be called a human. Merely because it looked human as could be.  
The little girl of five or six clothed in bloodstained clothing was just humming to herself as she skipped their way. Her snow white hair was dyed a dark crimson from all the spilled blood.  
A gust of a breeze passed by the solider closest to the door, and he paused in confusion.  
The commander pointed with one arm towards the open door and bellowed his orders.  
"Archery unit! Fire a volley!"  
Thirty archers aimed their bows and fired all at once into the hallway.  
Sakuya noticed the arrows faster than the archers did. She went down on her knees and bent her back over the floor as the arrows passed above her and missed their target. She stayed down in that position for a short while and looked at the front exit.  
The soldiers didn´t need to see much more than that as her wild and hungry eyes had been their signal to close the door at once.  
A commander began to provide orders to the assembled soldiers. "Trinity formation! We will hold this door!"  
The soldiers rallied up with swordsmen in the front, lancers in the middle and archers in far back. They created three squads that surrounded the now closed door and prepared for the assault.  
"It´s just children! We can´t be defeated like this!"  
She laid there on the floor and stared with frantic eyes that quickly moved in every direction. They were crazed of fear and panic over what she could see now.  
Sakuya's viewpoint was vastly different and downright terrifying.  
Everything around her was covered in a red crimson light that began to alter her surroundings. The walls began to melt like candle wax and the ceiling dripped thick, heavy drops as a dark thumping sound echoed through the hallway. The torches looked like scorched human skulls that burned with an eerie light and she could feel the floor stick onto her body in a thick liquid. The scent of blood was so compact and thick that she nearly choked on it and the panic began to spread along with blood fumes which filled her lungs and mind.  
Everything began to close onto her and bubbles began to boil up in the ceiling as faces surfaced within it. Small faces of children that cried blood with wide open mouths in pain and wide opened eyes of torment. She heard countless of screams and cries from children of both genders and various ages. Each and every one of them felt like a glass shard that cut through her body.  
She squirmed over it and tried to get away from the crimson red floor as it began to turn into hands that tried to pull her under along with cries from helpless kids below her. The panic, the retribution, the eternal screams of children that forced her to take action as her body moved were nothing like she experienced before. She couldn´t think in all this chaos and simply decided to kill anything that tried to kill them, in order to escape this crimson nightmare.  
She needed to get out, she needed to escape, she needed… to kill.

-

The soldiers looked at the barricaded door with extreme suspense. The walls cracked behind it as something slammed into them with violent force and began to move over to the door. The lancers shivered a little bit from the fright as some of them could feel that something horrible awaited them on the other side.   
Their commander bellowed a bolstering tone to enforce their moral. "Ready! We can´t fail now! For the Mizutama line!"  
It sounded like something began to ram into the door and pushed them a little bit inwards from the force.  
The soldiers remained on their posts and the pushes against the door continued in a fury. Wood creaked and the hinges nearly got torn out from the wall as the force behind the door increased.  
It stopped.  
Another minute passed by in intense silence as the soldiers didn´t move or even blink from the nervous expectation. One of them remarked with a lighter tone to the others.  
"It gave up."  
Some of the soldiers began to laugh in order to scatter their fear and the intense mood. Others began to join in as they began to lower their weapons in supreme confidence. Their enemy had been scared off by the supreme forces of Mizutama´s personal guard. That was the only explanation they had and enjoyed to the fullest.  
One raised his voice in a victorious cheer, "Long live Mizutama!"  
  
The cheers died abruptly as the double doors erupted inwards towards them. Something  appeared in the opening and made the soldiers back away in true horror.  
The bloodstained little girl was surrounded by floating blue fires with a distinctive tail to them and the moving bodies of their slain comrades. Said bodies forced their way through the door, breaking it down and cutting down the living with their weapons.  
Sakuya looked down on all the soldiers with her glowing red eyes now far more annoyed than angry or crazed.  
The room was filled with those dark shadows and they all were merged with the weapons they held. She could hear the cries and the inhuman chatter from them as they shrieked and looked at her.  
They looked desperate and wild, and Sakuya acted on what she believed to be pure survival instinct as she shrieked even louder then these shadows did to scare them off.  
The shadows didn´t back off and she immediately began to prepare to fight like there was no tomorrow. She needed to escape the nightmarish images around her, the blood red light that made everything melt and pulsate as she looked at it.  
The soldiers closest to the girl covered their ears as her shriek echoed in their helmets and some lancers dropped their spears as they could feel their teeth shake in their mouths. The commander held one of his ears as he tried to make his voice heard over the monstrous shriek.  
"Fools! Don´t drop your guard!"  
Nobody heard it as Sakuya rushed forward and snatched two people at once with two giant clawed hands that erupted from the stones around them. They were lifted in the air and the stone hands clipped them in half like their armors were made out of glass. Blood came out from their mouths and they threw the bodies away so the halves landed back on the others who collapsed and screamed in panic over the shower of blood.   
Tobirama was cutting down the people to the sides of her and forced the soldiers to become cornered as he moved on to each one far faster than they thought possible.  
Sakuya impaled three soldiers brought their chest with ice spikes on and covering her hands then held them up above her head like meat pieces over a fire. The soldiers screamed and began to shoot another valley of arrows at her as their commanders ordered them to. Sakuya wrapped the bodies of the dead around her, the stone clawed hands raised to cover her face and torso with the dead soldiers still stuck to it  
Some of the arrows hit some type of barrier due to the seal or symbol that appeared in the air where it hit while the others simply hit their dead comrades instead. This didn´t stop her in the slightest as she continued the massacre while she kept her new shield around her. One guard was caught from below and got sliced of vertically in half from a blade of wind while another one got cut straight through diagonally from his left shoulders. Spears broke, bows reloaded and blood squirted widely as the chaos ensured by her relentless fighting.  
Swords tried to chop up her legs by the sides but instead she kicked them outwards like they were made of cloth and tripped them over. Anything that got into her path was bound to die within seconds.  
Blood splattered over the girl's body and the soldiers began to panic even further as they couldn´t even get close enough to use their own weapons on her. The child burned, shocked, crushed, drowned, sliced, and impaled anything she could rest her eyes on that was labeled an enemy and literally had blood dripping from her body as she moved forward to slay the rest. One of the commanders got her claws forced down his throat and the head exploded from within shortly afterwards. The archers managed to get one arrow through her meat shield and into her soft body. Sakuya barely noticed it as her current state of constant panic kept her from the sensation of pain.  
The arrow fell out of her body and the wound was healed before their eyes.  
She shrieked again and swung around on the spot more violently as she shoved the soldiers down and was stabbed by a couple of lancers from the side. She looked at them and used the stone hand to crush their spines into splinters by sheer force alone. The soldiers screamed in pain and slumped down along the walls they hit. One of the soldiers managed to get close enough to stab her leg. She looked down at him and simply swiped thrust her palm out at him, sending out a gust of wind that sliced him to pieces.  
Necks splintered, armors broke and swords were thrown out of their hands as she rampaged in the hall.  
It was a massacre beyond anything they ever knew and the soldiers decided to fight as long as they could, only to retreat when they got the order to do so.  
What then followed could only be described as something just as horrific as the nightmare the girl went through in that moment.

-

The shrieks made Mizutama realize that it hadn´t been a dream as she thought. She quickly changed into a night cloak in crimson red color and a pair of shoes as someone knocked on the door to her room.  
"Who is it?"  
"It´s your humble medic nin, Milady."  
She waited to open as it could be a trick that her rivals tried to assassinate her with. She instead moved over to a small table and picked up a handheld mirror with a sharp edge as handle and took a moment to check her reflection.  
"What´s the secret word?"  
"Milady is perfect."  
She felt a little more secure as she tied her clothes tight and issued the next order. After that she used her own personal key to unlock the door of course.  
"Come in."  
A woman entered the room in a green robe with mystical symbols all over it. She had dark rings beneath her eyes and a dull look of concern behind them.  
This one was just one of Mizutama personal group of medic nins and healers, a group with the sole purpose to keep her beauty preserved for all eternity.  
The medic nin reported with great worry as Mizutama focused on her own reflection in a even larger mirror to track down any trace of old age.  
"Milady, we´re under attack."  
"I have soldiers to solve that problem."  
"But Milady, what happens if the soldiers fail and the intruder comes here?"  
"Won´t happen. I will simply open the doors to Asaka´s area and let them go there instead. Do you see anything odd on my skin?"  
The medic nin knew too well what Mizutama meant and stated in an respectful tone, "Milady, I can´t see any of those discolored areas on you. Didn't you have your bath earlier today?"  
"Yes, but I can never be sure that it cured it."  
Another sigh from the medic nin as Mizutama´s search for eternal youth didn´t know any limits, even if she had a reason for her concerns.  
Three decades ago, Mizutama had begun to experience odd symptoms that appeared as red marks and wrinkles over her skin, similar to the injuries one would have if they touched a hot pot and didn't cool down the injury in snow. Blisters and necrosis of every area that got exposed by the sunlight itched, swelled and spread further over her body unless she stayed in the dark. This appeared every time the sun managed to breach the sky and land on her body hence why she never appeared outside the safety of her home during daytime. A horrible disease that forced her to hide and was unable to have a family of her own due to how horrendous she looked by sunlight exposure. No doctor or medic ninja on the entire continent seemed to know how to cure it and she had begun to try more desperate measures to keep it back. Blood had been her salvation and managed to restore her to her youthful appearance once the symptoms began to show again. She couldn´t go out and enjoy the light like the common people did but she didn´t lament that fact since she was one of the Mizutama bloodline. She had enough gold and treasure to make herself happy and youthful in her isolation.  
She didn't want to look old and she didn't wanted to die. That's why she didn't care about the side effects even if she had some abdominal pain once in awhile along a much weaker and frail body that couldn't take much punishment before it broke down entirely.  
Another look back at the medic nin and a snobbish question came up. "Why did you come here again?"  
"I came here, Milady, to tell you that this is getting too dangerous."  
"Excuse me?"  
"You might want to have the fountain of youth in your hand, but we aren´t paid enough to be used as your sacrifices. We beg you to consider retreating back to the summer residence in your territory. For your own sake of course."  
Mizutama considered it for a short while before she turned to her medic nin.  
"Go and tell my soldiers that they shall open the door to Asaka´s areas and gather in a junction there."  
"What for?"  
'They will serve as distraction while I pack my things. Pack your supplies and prepare to depart within two hours."  
"But the intruder..."  
"Those soldiers will be excellent bait while we escape through the main entrance right behind its back. I can´t afford to have my beauty die. I refuse to let it happen."  
"Understood, Milady."  
The medic nin bowed down and then left in a hurry to give out the orders. Mizutama looked into the mirror again and remarked with a smile before she ordered her servants to pack for her.  
"I´m so beautiful. So beautiful. Just as it´s supposed to be."

-

The shriek echoed into the dark room of Akagi's private quarters where something newly created slept in silence. It was enough to bring its conscious back in pieces and its heavy breathing sounded through the room as it tried to wake up.  
The body felt so numb, yet so powerful.  
Another scream disturbed the sleep, a sleep that lasted seemingly forever since the burning and intense pain from when the yokai carved him open and inserted something that made his body burn as hell fire itself had been pushed into the veins.  
Stars appeared in this darkness. Hundreds of stars and two of them began to kill the others.  
 _My servants! Who's killing my servants?_  
The thoughts were scattered and irregular as everything came back to him and the man in the dark opened one of his eyes.   
He thought a single thing, _They will pay for it tenfold._  
One heavy sting of pain went through his head as he rose up from the bed with heavy steps and turned toward the door with thoughts that struggled to take shape.

-

One of Mizutama's commanders received their new orders from one of the messengers and made himself as loud as he could.  
"All units! Fall back to Asaka´s doors! Cover the retreat with the archers and build a shield formation! Leave the wounded and don´t look back! Retreat!"  
The soldiers immediately left by the west hallways in delight and panic as it had been a simple one-sided massacre of their ranks. Their weapons had proven useless against the untamed fury unhinged children could possess. They were at a huge disadvantage against something like that. Archers stayed ready with their bows in case the children would commence a hunt after them but they had other things to do at the very moment.   
One hundred sixty-five dead soldiers, piled up and covering the floor like a thick carpet of torn iron and wretched bodies. A third of them had large gaping holes the size of a melon through their chests and others were cut in every possible angle and half. Vertically, horizontally, diagonally, clipped by the knees, by the shoulders, decapitations and some from the groin and up to their necks. Nobody that had been in vicinity of her had been spared and the hall had got a whole new decorative pattern of bloodstains, similar to someone who had thrown man-sized tomatoes all over the room and even the ceiling. Soldiers had even been piled up in small hills as they died like flies by her doing.  
All done this had been done in ten minutes. The first hundred had died within seven minutes from the point she entered the hall.  
A volley of arrows caught her attention as they crashed against the stone barriers around Tobirama and herself, falling to the ground harmlessly.  
Sakuya stared down at the archers in the wide open entrance.  
Their eyes contained such uncertain fear over that they still stood in the room as their commander ordered them to. They shivered due to the close to evil stare the girl now gave them.   
One of the archers asked out loud, "So what do we do now commander?"  
No answer came and the archers turned their heads around in slight confusion.  
"Commander?"  
Only to see him run off in the far distance as fast as his legs would allow him to. The archers stood there for a short moment in utter disbelief before another distorted scream froze the blood in their veins.  
They quickly turned around and saw the girl head straight for them as she crushed the blanket of soldiers. The archers immediately began to run in the opposite direction but the massive stone claws closed in and clipped them like a knife through paper.   
The archers raised their bows in a futile attempt to kill her but she immediately leapt at them in a shriek. The archers couldn´t react as fast as her when she reached them and killed them with three fast kicks from the side. One in the head, the second crushed one´s ribcage and the third broke the spine on the last. They gasped in pain as life left them just as easy as a candle blown out.  
The red world hadn't stopped. The cries and screams hadn't stopped. She needed to make it stop no matter what. She needed to escape. She moved entirely according to her own survival instinct, instinctive abilities usage and emotions as she created several shadow clones to hunt down the escaping foes.  
Despite the horrors around her, only herself, the corpses and Tobirama looked the same to her now. He was normal, a bit shocked at the display and the emotional outburst of hers, but human. Just like she was.  
"They were trying to lead us away from the area. Clearly, Mizutama is still here and about to attempt an escape," Sakuya told Tobirama as he approached her.  
Despite the insanity she was feeling and seeing, her voice was steady and calm.  
She had managed to keep much of her sanity intact where it mattered.   
Sakuya looked over her friend's for and breathed a sigh of relief at seeing that he didn't think of her in a bad light. He was concerned, but it was more over her blood covered self and the torn areas of her clothing than her lapse of control.  
"I'm sorry that you had to see me like that. Something sent me into a frenzy, and it's still there."  
She smiled softly at him, the bright white teeth contrasted greatly against the blood stained flesh of her face.  
"I understand why you would react like that. This is your first true experience on the battlefield, and to see such a sight when you can sense things so more intense than most others can." Tobirama petted her hair, his less stained hand becoming bloody due to the life blood dripping from her matted hair and body.  
He looked back at the shambling corpses in wonder. "What are they?"  
"I'll tell you what they aren't. Edo Tensei."  
"What kind of twisted jutsu is that?"  
Sakuya raised an eyebrow in mockery. "Exactly what an Impure World Ressurection sounds like I figure?" She shrugged and observed the soldiers bodies.   
In the distance, beyond the body, she had the feeling their souls had moved on already. She was just manipulating their empty bodies, shells with no substance or purposes aside from cannon fodder, shields or a blunt weapon to use against these forces. Organs trailed behind those still intact enough to move, while limbs wrapped around their bodies.  
No awareness or personality remained within them and their only purpose was to destroy the enemy before their bodies gave out.  
"I always wanted an army of my own. Just never considered reanimating one before," she said lightly.  
"It would be beneficial to use another person's army against them," Tobirama admitted. There was a contemplative look in his eyes, and she figured this was where he would get an idea for Edo Tensei in this timeline. Intrigued light red eyes met curious dark red ones as he said, "Sometimes I wonder about what madness and ingenuity goes in your mind."  
"I blame my surroundings and those I get to know."

-

One such person was having the time of his life.  
Madara hadn't fought this seriously since his rebirth into this timeline. No matter where he looked, only the inhuman eyes of the yokai met his own cruel and ruthless stare. The grunts, the shrieks and the strategy these creatures displayed were far different than what he expected. Instead of one on one, these ones went at the two in groups of ten and used both close and ranged combat in their attempts to triumph over the two warriors. Reinforcements in form of more yokai arrived to the other group and replenished the numbers of those which fallen. There were hundreds of them and all trained to deal with warriors and ninja with strategies that based on both number and battle formations.  
It was a true battlefield and Madara enjoyed every second of it with a psychotic smile on his face.  
Another yokai lost its head as Madara cut through its neck in a simple horizontal cut off a blade. The body slumped down and three more yokai went at him in its place with arms raised to slash. Another quick swing from him that dismembered two of them while decapitating a third with ease. They proved to be more of a challenge than the usual yokai and human, much to his delight as he hadn't fought this much for a good while now. The yokai teamed up from all directions as they tried to ambush him in a circle with maws wide open and a crazed stare from their inhuman eyes.  
Madara laughed manically in ecstasy as the shrieks from them died out and their insides spread around him.  
Shukaku on other hand stayed calm, well calmer, as he disposed of the yokai with simple strikes that finished them off quickly as he saved energy for later.  
Together, they had already butchered one hundred yokai like it had been a dance. They covered each other´s backs from surprise attacks and taken out those that tried to use the confusion to their advantage.  
The stream of enemy reinforcements seemed endless and the human and feline yokai stood back to back against the hoard. They were surrounded and the yokai built up a circle around them as they prepared to fire their ranged attackers.  
Madara looked around and remarked with satisfaction in his tone and increasing excitement, "Finally some action. You take the twenty on your side and I'll take the rest."  
Before Shukaku even responded, a new aura made itself known at the far end of the hall, something so strong that it even got every single one of the remaining one hundred and fifty yokai in the room to look in its direction. They shrieked in a fear that mixed with a murmur with all the others and immediately ran off into the connected hallways. Madara looked around in confusion as he threatened the yokai with his sword and sounded even disappointed.  
"Come back here! Things were just getting interesting! Get back here you spineless cowards!"  
None of the yokai stopped and they evacuated the hall within minutes as they left their dead to rot. Madara lowered his sword entirely then.  
"That was unexpected." Madara said to himself in a purely disappointed tone and kicked a decapitated head over the ground.  
Shukaku hit the child in the back of his legs with his tails and Madara turned around in curiosity at the sensation. "What?"  
He noticed how Shukaku looked at something by the far end of the huge rectangular hall. Madara followed his eyes and noticed the new arrival as well.  
By the far end of the hall and a set of double stairs that lead up five meters to the next floor, decorated with an elegant railing with orange tapestry over them, a single man in his late thirties with bandages all over his body with an elegant robe over them stood at the top of them with a dizzy look in his face. Even from the distance they stood from him, they both could see that everything wasn´t right with his head. The eyes wandered in an irregular pattern as to keep track of the thoughts in his mind and he twitched with his fingers.  
He looks vaguely like a much younger but as troublesome Danzo Shimura, Madara thought.   
None of them said anything as they looked up with expectation and alert over the new aura that radiated much more power than the average yokai.   
The man looked out over the hall and put his right foot one the railing as Madara inhaled deeply. He took a pause, eyes went wide open in a mad stare and then he shouted at the top of his lungs, "ALL HAIL THE GODS!"  
He pushed off with his foot and the aura increased in intensity as the railing broke into tiny projectiles aimed at the two partners.  
Madara used the broadside of his sword to block the attack while Shukaku shredded the pieces as it neared them. The musical metallic sound made him jerk with his head to the right and he finally noticed them.  
"What? Assassins! Can it be!?" His speech lacked coordination and he shouted the words in emotional outburst that lacked something. He continued as he jerked his head the other way and sounded delighted by the sight. "Oh, what magnificent luck! What unfortunate occurrence! What joy!"  
Madara looked at him idly. "I take it you are Shimura?"  
Shimura opened his mouth wide in shock and dislike as he held his arms out and twitched with his fingers in half clenched fists. He gasped by surprise and his tone turned into both delight and a humble request, "Oh! Oh! OH! OH! Uchiha, I plead you! Please! Please! Please!..." His face expression suddenly dropped the surprise and turned into menacing and cruel one as his voice turned darker. He walked over to the edge and balanced on it with playfulness. "…can you humbly drop dead?"  
He leapt of the edge and threw of his aristocratic robe in midair as a dark tendril shoot out from behind his abdomen and towards them both. Madara and Shukaku leapt to the opposite sides and the dark tendril created an impact crater where it landed. They both went at it to cut it off but it retracted before they got the chance. Shimura landed on his feet and the bandages began to pulsate from the flesh that now began to change.  
Shimura didn´t move a muscle as he stood straight up with his hands along his sides. The voice contained madness and all traces of his former self slowly began to wither and die as the corrupted and foreign chakra surged through him.  
"I can see clearly now. All hail the ones who stand above man. All hail those that will rule like true gods! I will hear your command and kill anyone who threatens your minions!"  
His voice grew in size and new shapes burst through the bandages as his legs and muscles broke and tore to create new forms. Both Shukaku and Madara kept their eyes on him and slowly raised their stares as he grew and his speech altered and changed.  
"Yes! And therefore…"  
What now stood at a distance from them could only be described as a huge horned starfish-like creature that covered the entire wall at the end of the hall. It had eleven arms and a straight line of dozens of huge circular eyes on each arm, all with functional eyelids and slit pupils. The end of these arms had a sharp fingernail, almost humanoid, shield at the end. The center of this creature was composed of a huge circular maw with pointy fangs in the crater it composed. It also had a ring of dark horns around this maw as protection and the body had a dark blue color to it.  
The creature was twenty meters in diameter and each arm reached out fifteen meters along the walls towards the duo. It breathed through the massive maw and shouted at the top of its lungs again in complete loyal madness.  
"…ALL HAIL THE GODS!"  
"How interesting," Madara stated. He showed a psychotic smirk in pure excitement as he remarked in battle-eager enthusiasm. "This is going to be a wonderful dance."  
"I wonder if it would regenerate a limb if I rip one off?" Shukaku asked with a bloodthirsty grin.  
Shimura bellowed then attacked.

-

The main hall of the fortress contained several huge pillars in two rows and elegant armors were lined up along the walls. This hallway reached twenty meters up to the ceiling and fifteen meters at the sides. At the far end of it were the huge spiral stairs that lead to every floor in the fortress and the nine doors that provided visitors entrance to the Fellowship´s respective areas. The opposite end headed to the main exit.  
A door opened from the east wing, Mizutama´s area.  
One single servant looked outside and then retreated back in as it opened the doors to their full range. A small procession exited it dressed in robes that completely covered them up, all in ceremonial robes and with their faces hidden in the shadows. The one in the middle stood out as it wore a red robe with a bloodline weapon shield on its front.  
A diagonal dagger with a talon around its handle.  
Mizutama´s family weapon.  
Mizutama and her personal group of healers and medic nins along with a small group of ten guards for protection were attempting to flee.  
The medic nins wore a number of satchels that contained their ingredients and potions that  Mizutama needed for her problem. Mizutama herself kept a mirror hidden in her sleeves as she had to cover her face completely to block out the light outside.  
A smug grin appeared beneath her hood as her plan had worked perfectly.  
From the few reports the intruders that rampaged in her area had taken the bait. Her loyal guard force got all wiped out as they expected to be reinforced once they opened the doors to Asaka´s area, but Mizutama had no plans to do so as she left them for dead.  
The messengers had also reported that they heard infernal laughter from both Asaka's and Shimura's areas and that had been the signal to Mizutama to put her plan in motion.  
She chuckled to herself in clever arrogance as they walked towards the exit.  
 _I better lock the main entrance behind me. Let the others be butchered by the intruders for all what I care. I have my beauty to preserve._  
 _The hallway seemed eerily empty and abandoned for some reason. She didn´t care about the details as she continued to scheme._  
 _Three weeks in my summer residence. Let things ride out and then return to see if anyone survived. If any of them did, then I just have to kill them personally._  
She looked down at her arm and counted the number of children she had to bring to her baths the next month.  
 _Twenty. That should do for this month. I can´t exactly get the ones I earlier picked up, but that doesn't matter. There´s orphans everywhere. They are like vermin, always present._  
The guards in front of the group stopped and Mizutama looked up as the entire escort stopped in their tracks.  
"What is this disturbance?"  
Her eyes froze as she could see the reason from the darkness in her hood.  
The hallway was abandoned, completely deserted which should be impossible since a guard force was always deployed to guard it. But that wasn´t what brought her to a halt.  
Two blood covered children stood in her way.  
 _What the…?!_  
The children were standing before them with similar grins of excitement on their young faces. Both of their eyes seemed to burn with some time of red hue Their near identical snow white hair was dyed crimson.  
On closer examination, they were the two chakra using children that Miyake's doll brought to her with the promise it would enhance her beauty.  
Mizutama's hidden face showed startled confusion as she spoke up in slight fright, "You two?! Where are the guards!?"  
The girl giggled sweetly and it was disturbing to hear in combination with her blood stained appearance.  
"Ashes to ashes, and dust to dust," she singsonged in a haunting way as she pointed at a corner with one hand.  
The guards in Mizutama´s group looked up and gasped in terror as they began to back away. Mizutama followed their stares and held back her own gasp of fright.  
All of the guards in the neutral zone were rapidly burned up by blue flames so hot it reduced them to piles of ash, armor and all.  
Mizutama looked back down just in time to see her own private guards slump down as the hellish children cut them down with ease. The girl slashed through their skin and armor with swords and wind that moved through them with ease like it was cutting hot butter. The boy used a katana to reach into the narrow gaps of their armors and hit their weak points that way.  
The medic nins and her most loyal servants were offered a choice to work for the girl to try and fix the damage they have wrought along with being paid and being protected and alive or meeting the same fate as the guards. Not a single one turned down the deal and they kneeled and bowed down to the girl as if she were their God.  
Mizutama staggered backward in disbelief for this betrayal.  
The girl turned to look at her with a dark grin.  
Mizutama immediately realized the implications and growled in arrogant anger over it.  
"No, I can´t have been outsmarted."  
"I would say that we're sorry to disappoint you, but that would be lying," the boy said bluntly.  
Mizutama changed the grip of her hidden handheld mirror so the sharp edge pointed forward instead, an improvised dagger in her taste and a readiness to use it. All it took was for her assailant to get a little closer. She nonchalantly pulled down her hood and revealed her face to the intruder in an attempt to catch her off guard.  
"Who do you think you are!? Or for that matter, do you have ANY idea of who I am!"  
The girl, evidently the leader of the two, spoke up with a calm and cruelly amused voice, "Akahana Mizutama. Forty-six years old and born from the late Toshiro Mizutama. Murderess of thousands of children during the last thirty years. You suffer from a rare skin disorder that disfigures and covers it in painful blisters with accelerated decay when exposed to sunlight. Most likely a result from generational incest within the bloodline. The only temporary cure is monthly blood transfusions that you chose to take as bloodbaths from mentioned children. The greatest and most despicable civilian serial killer in recent history. If it ever came out to the public... No family due to shame over your degenerate disease."  
As the intruder rabbled out information Mizutama became more and more displeased and pale from the amount of knowledge that now leaked out. She tried to move closer in a discrete manner as she prepared to strike.  
"So you do know who I am then. Then let me ask, what do you think about me?"  
"You are a human."  
Mizutama laughed out in mockery over the last words and sounded even more arrogant than usual.  
"Human?! That's so ridiculous! I'm a part of the Fellowship. I'm the ruler over half of my territory. I'm the most beautiful person alive and also the one who stands above any other in terms of power and riches. You have no right to call me such a lowly thing as a mere human, you hellish fiend. I know how the world works and as long as you're beautiful then everyone will forgive you for your actions. Killed children you say? I did the society a favor by removing those damned parasites from the streets. They're not strong enough to work or be of any other use. Only demanding food and shelter for nothing in return. Mankind breeds like rabbits so there will always be orphans and unwanted children that are left to die. What's wrong with finding some use for them? What´s wrong with having them serve me and preserve my beauty forever? You can´t deny me my right to remain beautiful!"  
The intruder had listened the whole time as Mizutama moved close enough to stab her in the neck with the handle. All that it would take was one single step forward.  
The intruder spoke with a calm tone as Mizutama moved past her and prepared to stab her from behind. The pointy end of the handle rose in the air with a smug look on Mizutama´s face as she prepared to kill.  
"I have the cure that will permanently undo your condition."  
That sentence froze Mizutama immediately as it sounded too amazing to believe.  
"What?"  
The intruder didn´t turn around and continued to talk away in a constant calm.  
"Didn´t you know it´s curable? Then allow me to solve it before you leave."  
Mizutama was caught completely off guard and her obsession took control immediately as she lowered her mirror and demanded in her aristocratic tone, "What are you waiting for?! Give it to me! Give it to me immediately! Stop waste time and make me beautiful forever!"  
"I have heard your wishes and desires and shall grant it."  
The intruder quickly turned around in a slicing motion and stabbed Lady Mizutama in the chest with her hands that had transformed into claws for one moment.  
Blood squirted from the deep diagonal cut over her chest and from the stab wound. The lifeblood of the murderess came out her mouth and an completely shocked expression fell over her visage. She gasped for air as she fell back and down on the floor back first. Her handheld mirror crashed into the floor and the surface got a web of cracks in it.  
"What?"  
She lay there and grasped for air as the intruder now stood in front of her and looked down with glowing eyes. It wiped a dagger clean of her blood and Mizutama tried to speak with a punctured lung.  
"You said…"  
"I didn't lie." The girl said serenely. "This was one way to cure the condition permanently after all. The other would take too long and you are far better off dead than my minion."  
"But-"  
"But now at least, no more children will fall victims to your madness."  
Mizutama looked up at the ceiling and asked in a wheeze. "What are you?"  
The girl shrugged. "It wouldn´t hurt to tell you I guess, since your soul will soon fade into nothing."  
The girl reverted her arm back to a pale skinned human arm and with that one in front of her body while the there one was behind her, bowed down a little in a mocking gesture of politeness.  
"I am called Sakuya, aspiring God-Emperor. Should your guards and all the other lost souls that finally passed over ask about who sent you to your torturous fate, then tell them it was the future ruler of all things. And apologize to those on the other side on my behalf for the inconvenience."  
Mizutama wheezed as her blood pumped out from her body and her chest bathed in it. She instead reached out to her mirror with futile attempts and wheezy breaths.   
Sakuya used her foot to shove it to Mizutama who picked it up with all of her remaining strength. She managed to hold it close to her face and saw into it and past the four cracks that went halfway to the middle from a common point to the left.  
Her face was pale from the blood loss, her eyes dim and she had blood from her mouth that ran down along the sides. A weak smile appeared in her face as she used willpower to mutter something, "I´m beautiful. So beautiful. As it´s supposed to-"  
Her words failed her as the last light in her eyes died out and the mirror landed with a small thump on her bleeding chest. Her eyes remained half open and the mouth stopped to pour blood out of it. She lay there, bathing in her own blood with a delusional smile on her lips, marking the end of Mizutama´s bloodline.  
Sakuya looked down at one of the most monstrous civilian humans in history and simply left her there as she headed towards the main stairwell.  
 _The child murderer is done for. Let's see who's next. I suppose we should hunt down this Miyake to finish off that area. Madara and Shukaku are having fun with some type of creature that is unstable. Gavin is outside watching the chaos like the bastard he is. That leaves-_ , Sakuya thought before it was cut off.  
"Sakuya-hime?"  
Sakuya stopped midstep at hearing the reverential title and turned her head to face the speaker. It was one of her new medic nins. "What is it?"  
The medic nin shifted a little and looked at her respectfully. "What are your orders?"  
Sakuya nodded her head before facing forward. "Care for the surviving children, go through the Mizutama area for information, and write down everything you all know about the plants, animals, materials and the like of this world. I also want you to write an very in-depth explainatuin of every single known crime that these families did since their foundation to this moment so I can tell the world about it. After that you will tend to the masses in the city and beyond while teaching me everything you know. Once things are settled, I will pay you and set something up for you all."  
The medic nins bowed, thankful to serve someone of better intentions and left as ordered.  
Tobirama looked at her with a raised eyebrow once they were alone.  
"What?" Sakuya demanded after a minute of his staring.  
Tobirama narrowed his eyes in thought. "You were quite charitable all of a sudden. Why?"  
Sakuya shrugged. "Their knowledge would better serve the world with them alive. I want to learn the craft, and there is always a need for more medics. I'll be teaching people how to find their chakra and use it in different ways in the near future. Having these... medic nins I guess and folk doctors would be beneficial."  
 _Besides, I can have them mass produce medicine, plants and other things if I find other types of drugs and the like here. There is always a place for that._  
Naturally, Sakuya kept that thought to herself.   
Tobirama nodded his head, seemingly accepting her words at face value. "How did you know that information about her though?"  
Sakuya sighed, seeing no other way than be blunt. "The whispers in this red haze I was affected with told me many things. Secrets, rough body counts, plans, scheme's and so on. The murdered have finally been able to pass on to the next world in peace now that some of their murderers have been taken care of. Mizutama, the other aristocrats and their families along with all the guards will cease to be at all upon death."

-

The Bloodstained queen was removed from the political map.

-

Sakuya started to walk in the direction of where she felt several sickening chakra signatures but stopped when the sounds of her companion's footsteps weren't heard. She turned around completely, tilted her head in a show of confusion and looked at the boy.  
Tobirama was staring intensely at the corpse of the delusional woman. He seemed to be wrestling with something, and she decided to wait for him to bring up whatever was on his mind in his own time.  
After a few minutes, he stepped over the corpse and walked toward her. Tobirama stopped when he was directly in front of her and just stared. She couldn't read him and that bothered her.  
"What are you planning?"  
Her mind went into overdrive to try and decode what he meant before realizing he was likely referencing what she said to the dying woman as a taunt.  
"World domination," she teased. Tobirama didn't seem to find that as a joke so she expanded on that. Her hands ran nervously through her hair, a stim she used to calm and center herself, and after a moment she told him. "I want to save as many people as I can. Unfortunately, this means I have to end the existence any and all threats to them and anything linking to said target."  
Sakuya pointed at the corpse of Mizutama and sneered. "I plan on taking over society as civilians know it before reorganizing them alongside the ninja forces and clans."  
"You want to change this world?" Tobirama inquired. Amusement danced in his eyes, and he was likely comparing that to Hashirama's dreams of children not killing each other and some tentative peace.  
Her blood boiled in her veins at Tobirama mocking her goal.  
"Look around you! Only a few handfuls of families over a span of five hundred years had a total estimated death count in the hundreds of thousands, if not into the low millions! And they were fucking civilians without a single trace of useable chakra, Tobirama!" Sakuya yelled as her hands swung about the bloodied central chamber to prove her point. "Ninja have death tolls in the hundreds of millions over senseless battles between lineages or traditions or pointless and forgotten reasons! We just keep on fighting and killing each other because that is all he know and are taught to accept. This endless hatred won't end naturally until everyone and everything on this planet is dead and-"  
Her vision became blurry as tears formed and ran down her cheeks. A pout formed at her second uncontrolled display of emotion and she started to look away when Tobirama's question forced her to look at him.  
"And?"  
"I don't want to lose my loved ones. I don't want to lose you, Tobirama." The words felt weird to say, and it was too heavy and unnatural. The feeling that something had changed settled down on her mind.  
 **"Relationship changed. Tobirama has been affected by your words,"** came the expected chipper response of the asshole Gavin.  
When Tobirama's hand came down on her head, Sakuya stiffened in shock before relaxing atthe awkward pats.  
"You won't lose me," Tobirama promised.  
She would have taken that seriously if she didn't know his fate or couldn't hear Gavin's taunting laughter at the declaration.  
The head pats turned into stroking as Tobirama continued. "You want to take over the world," and she heard the faint laughter in his voice at saying that, "to stop the bloodshed and make a better future."  
Sakuya nodded sheepishly. Her cheeks heated up in embarrassment over it being phrased that way. "I don't see people as clans, humans or yokai. There is no Us vs Them for me. I only see the person and nothing it is tied to. I accept them for who they are, not what they are. That's part of why I want to make safe havens for people and that's why I have to get more power. Financial, political, physical, chakra...it doesn't matter. I have to be stronger and more resourceful than anyone else would ever become to protect them and their livelihood. I just want to help and save as many humans and yokai as possible while making the world a better place for others."  
"Why?"  
"Other than the fact I live on this planet and don't want to see it choking to death on it's own dead?" She asked sarcastically. The girl became dead serious, and more than a little wistful. "It's because I love humanity and yokai. I see such beauty, promise and potential in them, but many never notice that or squander it. I want to help them see there is more to this world than hate or distrust, or even fear. I know many will never forgive me for the lengths I will eventually go to ensure this happens, but as long as they are safe and happy with their lives, I will gladly take on their negative sentiments."  
"Spare me the idealistic nonsense. I get enough from that with Hashirama."  
With that dismissive reaction the tension vanished as Tobirama moved around her and took the lead in the direction to Miyake's section.  
Sakuya glared at the boy before running after him. "That was really mean!" She scolded once they were beside each other again. "Here I was trying to be all serious and thought provoking and epic and you blow it off!"  
"That woman, Akahana Mizutama was wrong you know." Tobirama said. There was a decent blush on his cheeks as he said that.  
Sakuya put her hands behind her head and walked straight, but in a relaxed manner. "Obviously. Her views on society and humans were skewed and were terrible."  
The blush vanished as he glanced at her dully. "Nevermind."  
That only made her more curious on what he meant.

-

Within the command center, Madara sat and stared blankly as the bond strengthened between Sakuya and Tobirama. They were now labeled as close friends and allies, but hinted that there might be something more starting to grow within the filthy Senju bastard toward her.  
Disgust, hatred and uncontrollable fury slowly burned him from the inside, and allowed him to feel again to a point. It was all negative emotions, but there was no way he would care about him differently.  
Tobirama Senju took his brother away from him once, and now with this second chance to save Izuna, or some variation of his brother, the sperm haired asshole was after his Warden and prison.  
His only second chance at life!  
Sure, it was more idolization or deep respect for what she intended to do while accepting the consequences but who knows if that would change.  
She might have missed his thoughts, and what he meant by his word choice but Gavin made sure the thoughts of others were known to him as a punishment. The rest was easy enough to interpret.  
"She wasn't the most beautiful person alive. I'm standing next to her."  
That nearly made Madara rage quit and tear apart her mental library. The only reason why he managed to stop himself was the situation she was in and that it would harm her until she could recover, leaving her weak. Tobirama then would try to needlessly protect her, and she would rely on him more.  
That cycle of rage would be unending then.  
He didn't understand why he was so upset by an comment or implication that was more platonic than anything else, but the growing loss of control over things bothered him as much as his growing irritation for how things were progressing.  
If there was anything to be learned from this was that he still loathed all Senju and their tricks, but had an especially intense hatred for Tobirama. And for far more reasons than merely killing his brother now.


End file.
